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ESSAYS ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
SUBJECTS. 



ESSAYS ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
SUBJECTS, 

AND ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED 

WITH THE HISTORY OF ART, SCIENCE, 

AND LITERATURE IN THE 

MIDDLE AGES. 

BY 
THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A., F.S.A., M.R.S.L., Etc. 

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF 
FRANCE (ACADEMIE DES INSCRIPTIONS ET 
BELLES LETTRES.) 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 
VOL. II. 




LONDON : 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 

SOHO SQUARE. 

1861. 




CONTENTS. 



Page 



Chapter 

XIII. On the Ancient Map of the World preserved in 

Hereford Cathedral, as illustrative of the 
History of Geography in the Middle Ages . 1 

XIV. On the History of the English Language . 28 
XV. On the Abacus, or Medieval System of Arith- 
metic qi 

XVI. On the Antiquity of Dates expressed in Arabic 

Numerals 74 

XVII. Kemarks on an Ivory Casket of the beginning of 

the Fourteenth Century .... 88 
XVIII. On the Carvings of the Stalls in Cathedral and 

Collegiate Churches 1 1 1 

XIX. Illustrations of some questions relating to Archi- 
tectural Antiquities : — 

(a) Medieval Architecture Illustrated from 

Illuminated Manuscripts . 129 

(b) A word on Mediaeval Bridge- Builders . 137 



VI CONTENTS. 

Chapter Page 

(c) On the Remains of proscribed Races in 
Mediceval and Modern Society, as ex- 
plaining certain peculiarities in old 
Churches ..... 141 

XX. On the Origin of Rhymes in Mediaeval Poetry, 
and its bearing on the Authenticity of the 

Early Welsh Poems 151 

XXI. On the History of the Drama in the Middle Ages 169 
XXII. On the Literature of the Trobadours . .194 

XXIII. On the History of Comic Literature during the 

Middle Ages 230 

XXIV. On the Satirical Literature of the Reformation 272 

PLATES. 

Ivory Casket of Fourteenth Century, Plate L, to face . 95 

„ Plate II. „ . 98 

ERRATA. 

P. 94, note, for Brit. MS. read Brit. Mus. 

P. 166. My conjecture on the date of the " Black Book of Caer- 
marthen" is merely founded on the description by others. I have 
since received information which leads me to believe that this manu- 
script is of a considerably later date. 

P. 168, 1, 16, for to as late a date, read to a later date. 




ESSAYS ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
SUBJECTS. 

XIII. 
ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD PRE- 
SERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, 

AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

N the final breaking up of the Roman 
Empire, polite literature suffered much 
more than science. While there were 
iyi few, if any, of the barbarians who estab- 
lished themselves in the Imperial provinces, capable 
of appreciating the pure models of composition be- 
queathed to them by the classic writers, many, ex- 
cited by the novelties offered to their view on every 
side, were seized with an ardent thirst after know- 
ledge. We know with what avidity the sciences of 
the Greeks and the Romans were taken up by the 
Arabian conquerors, who subsequently gave to them 
an extraordinary development. In the west, during 
several centuries, the knowledge received from the Ro- 
mans made little or no advance ; and almost the only 
works on science, previous to the eleventh century, 
II. B 




2 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

were little better than compendiums and school-books, 
such as the writings of Isidore and Bede. 

To people who were conquering and colonizing, no 
science would be more attractive than that of geo- 
graphy, especially when they were at the same time 
receiving a new faith, founded on events which had 
occurred in countries far distant from their own 
homes. Many circumstances which have escaped the 
ravages of time, show us how much attention was 
paid by the Germanic conquerors to geography in the 
dark ages immediately following the overthrow of the 
"Western Empire. Even the song of the bard ap- 
pears to have been most welcome when it told of the 
different countries through which he had wandered. 
The fragment which has been published, under the 
title of the Traveller's Song, is one of the most re- 
markable relics of early Anglo-Saxon poetry. At a 
later period than that to which this piece evidently 
belongs, in the beginning of the eighth century, we 
learn from the letters of Boniface that, among the 
manuscripts then brought continually from the con- 
tinent into this island, our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 
were particularly desirous of possessing treatises on 
cosmography. 

There are extant two treatises on geographical 
science of a somewhat remarkable character, belong- 
ing to the earlier period of the middle ages. The first 
of these pretends to have been written by a " philo- 
sopher" of Istria named Ethicus, in a strange lan- 
guage, of which the alphabet is given at the end, and 
to have been translated or re-written in Latin by the 
celebrated St. Jerome, which would carry it back to 
the fourth century of the Christian era. But the 
barbarous Latin, totally dissimilar from the style of 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 3 

St. Jerome, seems to condemn this account as a mere 
fable. It is, however, a work of great antiquity ; for 
the age of manuscripts still preserved carries it back 
as far as the eighth century, and various points of 
internal evidence seem to fix it to a still more remote 
period. Its pretended author, Ethicus, is represented 
as a great traveller in search of geographical know- 
ledge : at one time we find him penetrating into the 
depths of Asia ; at another, exploring the Western 
Ocean, and almost reaching America — he alludes 
apparently to the peak of TenerifFe ; and then again 
we find him wandering through the Britannic isles, 
and extending his researches to the northernmost 
parts of Europe. Whether he really visited the places 
thus described may be considered as a matter that 
admits of great doubt ; but, concealed under an af- 
fectedly poetical but barbarous style of writing, often 
unintelligible, we perceive traces of geographical 
knowledge which we should little expect ; and it is 
by no means improbable that in Spain he may have 
picked up stories of the adventures of some of the 
daring navigators of its western ports, whom storms 
or their own bold curiosity had carried out into the 
trackless ocean, — the extent and bounds of which 
were then wrapped in fearful obscurity. The cos- 
mography of Ethicus appears, by the number of ma- 
nuscripts written in this country, to have been ex- 
tremely popular in England from the eighth to the 
eleventh (and even to the twelfth) century ; but it is 
as yet inedited, although an excellent edition is pre- 
paring by one of the most learned geographers of the 
present day, M. D'Avezac of Paris.* 

In the kingdoms founded by the Goths in Italy 

* This has since been published, with a very learned dissertation. 



4 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

and in Spain, literature and science were extensively 
cultivated by men who rather affectedly took to them- 
selves the Greek title of " philosophers." Unfortu- 
nately nearly all their writings have perished amid 
the convulsions of a succession of wars, during which 
the Goths ceased to exist as a people. It was pro- 
bably to one of these " philosophers" that we owe the 
so-called cosmography of Ethicus. Another of these 
Goths, who is generally considered as having lived 
at Ravenna, the capital of the Gothic kingdom in 
Italy, and as having flourished in the seventh century, 
but whose name is unknown, has left us a much more 
intelligible treatise on geography, though written in 
equally barbarous Latin. A remarkable feature of 
the work of the Geographer of Ravenna, the title by 
which this writer is commonly known, is the number 
of other writers on the same subject, or (as he calls 
them) "philosophers," who appear to have lived a 
little before his own time, who are cited by him, but 
who are otherwise totally unknown to us. In fact, 
it is through this writer alone that we are at all ac- 
quainted with the geographical literature of the pre- 
ceding age. Among the rather numerous writers 
quoted by this anonymous geographer, are three 
" philosophers of the Goths " ( Gothorum philosophi), 
whose names, Aithanarid, Edelwald, and Marcomir, 
at once evince the race to which they belonged. 
He quotes also frequently two Homano- African geo- 
graphers, Probus and Melitianus ; two Graeco-Egyp- 
tians, named Cyachoris and Blantasis, who had tra- 
velled to the south of Egypt in search of knowledge ; 
two Persians, who had written "a picture of the 
universe" in Greek, and whom he names Arsatius and 
Aphrodisianus ; two Greeks, Hylas and Sardonius ; 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. D 

and two Romans, Lallianus and Castorius. The last 
of these is the writer whose authority the geographer 
of Ravenna follows most largely. All the works 
of the schools represented by these names are now 
lost. 

The treatise of the geographer of Ravenna, divided 
into five books, consists, in a great measure, of lists of 
towns in each country ; and from the way in which 
they are given, his authorities seem often to have 
been maps or geographical tables like those of Ptolemy, 
whom also he quotes. But he has mixed the names 
together in so confused a manner, that, joined with 
the corrupt orthography, this has rendered it almost 
impossible now to identify many of them, although we 
can have no doubt that such places did exist. In 
Britain especially, where his list is remarkably full, 
he seems to have run his eye backwards and for- 
wards in so careless a way 5 that he has in several 
instances repeated the name of the same place, as 
though he had found it in different parts of the island ; 
and it is not at all improbable that he may have so 
far wandered beyond the limits, as to import into 
Britain two or three towns from the opposite coasts 
of Gaul and Germany. 

In the writings of this geographer we meet with 
those theological prejudices which were beginning to 
trespass on the scientific discoveries of the Greeks 
and Romans. He shows an unwillingness to speak 
of any but known countries ; and he evidently had 
no distinct conception of the form of the globe. He 
will not even allow, with the majority of the geo- 
graphers who had gone before him, that the earth was 
entirely surrounded by the sea. For, says he, if such 
were the case, where should we find Paradise, which 



6 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WOULD 

the holy Scripture describes as lying in the east. 
He therefore states as his opinion, founded on the 
authority of St. Athanasius, that beyond India lay a 
trackless desert of unknown extent, which no mortal 
was permitted to pass, beyond which lay Paradise, 
forming the extreme east. From Paradise, as he 
believed, sprang the four rivers — Geon, Physon, 
Tigris, and Euphrates ; and he could only be induced 
to accord any credit to the "gentile" philosophers 
who believed that the two latter rivers had their rise 
in the mountains of Armenia, on the supposition that 
they had come thither from Paradise by an invisible 
course. He believed that the ocean which washed 
the extremities of the earth with its waves was bounded 
at an unknown distance by lofty mountains, behind 
which the sun dropped at night as into a pit, passing 
under the earth to rise next morning in the east. 

Barbarisms like these had already been introduced 
into science in the east by the Christian ascetics. An 
Egyptian monk of the earlier part of the sixth cen- 
tury, named Cosmas, and termed, from the presumed 
fact of his having travelled into India, Cosmas Indi- 
copleustes, has left us a treatise on geography, which 
he designates by the title of The Christian Topogra- 
phy of the World, intimating thereby that it was the 
only system which conformed with the notions of 
orthodox Christianity- A system which he combats 
as most heretical and absurd, was that which gave 
to the earth the form of a globe, and which had been 
held by the " heathen " philosophers. He describes 
it as a vast oblong plain, surrounded by an immense 
wall which supported the blue vault of the firmament. 
He believed, like the geographer of Pavenna, that 
the sun set behind a great mountain. If we over- 
look the gross errors of his system, the treatise of 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 7 

Cosmas gives us some slight glimpses of the condi- 
tion of countries which were soon afterwards lost 
sight of by the Christian world for several centuries. 

The treatise of the geographer of Ravenna seems 
to have been totally lost to the world until the manu- 
script was discovered and printed in the seventeenth 
century ; and the cosmography of Ethicus, although 
evidently much read, appears to have had very little 
influence upon geographical science in succeeding 
ages. For we find that the books on this subject 
down to the twelfth century are almost all founded on 
Pliny, Solinus, and Isidore. Even at the end of the 
tenth century, the text-book on geography in Eng- 
land was the metrical Periegesis of Priscian, a trans- 
lation from the Greek Periegesis of Dionysius. 

It is surprising how little improvement had at this 
time been made in geographical science as taught in 
the schools, when we consider the many distant voy- 
ages which had been made by Anglo-Saxons in search 
of knowledge, and the eagerness with which accounts 
of distant lands had been grasped at. With the seventh 
century our forefathers began to pay frequent visits 
to the east, and several narratives of travels have 
been preserved. In the year 825, an Irish monk in 
France, named Dicuil, published a treatise on geo- 
graphy, under the title of De Mensura Orbis (Of the 
Measure of the World), which was still based on Pliny, 
Solinus, Orosius, Isidore, and Priscian; but Dicuil 
has inserted in it original information, gathered on the 
one hand from a traveller who had visited Syria and 
Egypt a little before the year 767 ; and on the other 
hand, from some clerks who had sailed among the 
northern islands of Scotland, and had even reached 
Thule or Iceland about the year 795. When king 
Alfred translated the historical work of Orosius, he 



8 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

inserted into the prefatory description of the world 
an account of central and northern Europe as it then 
existed, and very exact original information relating 
to the coasts of Scandinavia, which he had obtained 
orally from two northern navigators, Ohthere and 
Wulfstan. The royal translator is also said to have 
sent out messengers to distant India, who returned 
with many curiosities; and who, if the relation be 
true, must have delivered to the king an interesting 
account, the loss of which is in the highest degree to 
be regretted. I look upon it that there was no im- 
possibility, or even great difficulty, in such a journey 
in the peculiar state of political relations, when the 
empire of the Arabs was at its highest point of gran- 
deur. Expeditions like these, we should naturally 
think, ought to have added to the knowledge pre- 
viously in existence ; yet ages afterwards we still find 
the popular system founded as before on the older 
Roman treatises, and even the Roman names pre- 
served at a time when they can only have existed in 
books. It is impossible now to say how far the 
teachers in the schools explained orally these ancient 
denominations and descriptions according to their 
modern names, and what instruction was there given 
on the modern state of things. 

In the earlier mediaeval schools, teaching appears 
to have been a mere lecture, in a great measure gram- 
matical, on one popular text-book, from which 
masters and scholars, from generation to genera- 
tion, ventured rarely, if ever, to depart. The com- 
mentary of Bridferth of Ramsey, on the scientific 
writings of Bede, represents this course as pursued 
in the monastic school at Ramsey in the tenth 
century. Bridferth was, however, a man rather in 
advance of his age, and we find him sometimes appeal- 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. V 

ing to experiment in his teaching. He was educated 
in some of those schools on the continent which were 
then paving the way for a more solid extension of 
learning and knowledge, which, towards the end of 
the eleventh century, received a sudden and extra- 
ordinary development, in the midst of which arose 
those remarkable institutions of the middle ages, the 
universities. The Christian scholars of the west were 
now no longer satisfied with what was to be derived 
from their old text-books, or with the ordinary routine 
of learning which had been so long persevered in ; 
what they could not find at home, they sought in 
distant lands, and among the Arabs of Spain and of 
Syria they found not only new elements, but they 
imbibed new principles of study, and new views as to 
its objects, which had a powerful effect on the pro- 
gress of science in future ages. The science of the 
Greeks, as the empire sank into intellectual imbecility, 
was received and cherished by the Arabs, and they 
in their turn, as the empire of the Koran began to 
totter, handed it over to another race, in whose hands 
it ultimately led to that grander development which 
it has taken in modern times. 

It was in the midst of that great intellectual blaze 
which distinguished the twelfth century, that the first 
decidedly new element was introduced into geo- 
graphical science in the west. The Arabs, like the 
barbarian conquerors of Western Europe, had derived 
their first principles of geographical knowledge from 
the treatises of the ancients ; but they adopted and 
preserved Ptolemy, and probably some of the other 
writers who were used by the Gothic " philosophers," 
and had been exchanged in the west for mere ele- 
mentary treatises. The Arabs, moreover, who had 

B 2 



10 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OE THE WORLD. 

applied themselves to all the sciences with extra- 
ordinary ardour, were, by the great extent of their 
conquests, placed in a peculiarly advantageous position 
for extending and improving their knowledge in geo- 
graphy. They were, thus, far in advance of the 
Christians of the west ; who, from their intercourse 
with them, derived not only new knowledge, but a 
new energy in the pursuit of science, and above all, 
they adopted that practical skill in astronomical obser- 
vations, which soon dispelled the superstitious ignor- 
ance which had previously clogged their steps. 

The Anglo-Saxon scholars understood perfectly 
well that the earth was a globe. They considered it 
to be the centre of the firmament, which they ima- 
gined to be an immense concave surface, on which 
the stars were in some way or other attached. Two 
stars, the north polar star and the south polar star, 
directly opposite to each other, were the axles upon 
which the firmament turned its endless round. The 
Anglo-Saxon Manual of Astronomy , composed by 
Alfric, tells us that, " the firmament is always turn- 
ing round about us, under this earth and above, and 
there is an incalculable space between it and the 
earth. Four-and-twenty hours have passed, that is 
one day and one night, before it is once turned round, 
and all the stars which are fixed in it turn round with 
it. The earth stands in the centre, by God's power 
so fixed, that it never swerves either higher or lower 
than the almighty creator established it." The notion 
was, that all the continents and islands known to us 
as inhabited, belonged to one of five zones, that it 
was divided from another equally temperate zone in- 
habited by the antipodes, by a torrid zone, the heat 
of which rendered it impossible for human beings to 
pass from one temperate zone to the other. Each 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 11 

temperate zone was bounded by a frigid zone, the 
cold of which rendered it equally uninhabitable and 
inaccessible with the central torrid zone. " Truly," 
says Alfric, " the sun's intense heat makes five parts in 
the world, which we call in Latin quinque zonas, that 
is, fiye girdles. One of the parts is in the centre, 
raging hot and uninhabitable on account of the sun's 
nearness, on which no earthly man dwells on account 
of the insupportable heat. Then there are on two 
sides of the heat two parts that are temperate, neither 
too hot nor too cold. On the north part dwell all 
mankind, under the broad circle which is called 
zodiacus. There are still two parts on two sides, a 
good deal to the southward and northward of the 
limits of this circuit, cold and uninhabitable, because 
the sun never comes to them, but stops on either side 
at the solstices." 

One of the popular Latin writers of this age com- 
pares the world to an egg, in which the shell repre- 
sents the firmament, — with the yolk, our earth, in the 
middle. There were also more popular views of 
science ; according to some of which it would appear 
as though the earth, while it was agreed that its 
shape was globular, was believed to be swimming in 
the ocean like an orange, the inhabited portion being 
that part of the surface which emerged from the 
water, while the sun dived into the ocean each even- 
ing, and emerged from it in the morning. An Eng- 
lish poem, of a later period (the thirteenth century) 
assures us that the — 

" Urthe is amidde the see a lute (little) bal and round." 

I have already observed that the geographer of 
Ravenna appears to have had maps before him when 
he compiled his book. We have, in fact, at nearly 



12 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

all times, allusions to the existence of maps. In 
earlier times these maps were attempts to lay down 
the positions of countries according to longitudes and 
latitudes, as in those of Ptolemy, and probably in 
those used by the Gothic " philosophers," or by iti- 
nerary distances, as in the celebrated Peutingerian 
tables. The maps which belong more especially to 
the middle ages, are mere attempts of the teacher or 
scholar to represent pictorially to the eye the supposed 
facts of the science, combined with his notion of their 
relative position, and of what he supposed to be the 
outlines of continents and islands. One of the most 
ancient maps of the world alluded to by medieval 
writers, was that which was possessed by St. Gall, 
who, in the sixth century, founded the monastery 
which has ever since been known by his name. 
Charlemagne is said to have had three tables or plates 
of silver, on which were represented the world, and 
the cities of Eonie and Constantinople. But silver 
was a dangerous metal for the preservation of a 
monument of science; and, some years afterwards, 
the great emperor's grandson, Lothaire, being in 
want of money, broke up one of these tables in order 
to pay his mutinous troops. 

One of the earliest — perhaps the earliest — mediaeval 
map we now possess, is a very interesting one pre- 
served in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the end of 
the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century, in the 
Cottonian library. It is of a square, or rather oblong 
square form, and, as it accompanies the text of the 
Periegesis of Priscian, and as it is far more correct in 
its general disposition than those of a later date, it is 
probable that it was formed on a much more ancient 
model. The names are generally ancient, but in the 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 13 

western and northern parts of Europe and in Eng- 
land, the author has evidently intended to introduce 
improvements to suit the position of things at the 
time he wrote. In Armorica, for instance, he has 
placed the people, whom he calls in Saxon Su^S-brettas. 
In England, Wintonia, or Winchester — the capital 
of the Anglo-Saxon kings — stands equally prominent 
with London, and these are the only . two towns 
named. The cities represented in this map, by their 
magnitude, as the most eminent in the world, are 
Babylon, Jerusalem, Borne, Constantinople, Alex- 
andria, and Carthage. A small and rude Greek map, 
accompanying a manuscript of the Topography of 
Cosmas Indicopleustes, said to be of the ninth century, 
represents the earth in a similar elongated square 
form with that given to it in the Anglo-Saxon map. 

A belief had arisen among the ecclesiastical geo- 
graphers, based upon a literal interpretation of the 
allegorical language of Scripture, that the holy city 
of Jerusalem occupied the exact centre of the world. 
A centre rather naturally implied a circular circum- 
ference, and this is the form almost universally given 
to maps of the world from the eleventh to the 
fifteenth century. The monkish geographers also 
adopted the belief long before enunciated by the geo- 
grapher of Ravenna, that Paradise occupied the 
eastern extremity of Asia, and to hinder any mistake 
that might arise upon this subject, they take care to 
figure in that position in their maps, not only the 
garden and the tree, but Adam and Eve standing 
beside it. The forms and positions of the different 
parts of the world are much more distorted than in 
the Anglo-Saxon map. Five cities now hold pre- 
eminence — Babylon, Jerusalem, Troy, Home, and 



14 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

Carthage. Since the commencement of the crusades, 
Constantinople and Alexandria had diminished in 
importance. Babylon, the oldest of cities, and the 
supposed site of the tower of Babel, — Jerusalem, the 
holy city, -par excellence, — Rome, the head of the 
Catholic world, were objects of universal reverence in 
the west. Troy had obtained an extraordinary cele- 
brity in the course of the twelfth century, not only 
from the circumstance of its history having become a 
popular subject of romance, but because, in the eth- 
nological fables of that age, founded upon Virgil, it 
was looked upon as the point from whence had sprung 
the different peoples by whom western Europe was 
inhabited ; and the map-makers seem entirely to have 
forgotten that the warlike city (as they called it) had 
long since ceased to exist. It is not so easy to 
account for the continued celebrity of Carthage. 

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the maps 
— which are all of this round form, and follow one or 
two types, chiefly distinguished by the form given to 
the Mediterranean sea, — are not uncommon in manu- 
scripts. They are all covered with inscriptions, and 
with figures of animals and of towns, which make 
them veritable treatises on geography. A map of the 
world, in a manuscript of the thirteenth century, in 
the British Museum, contains a curious note, in 
which the author refers to four maps which were then 
looked upon in England as being of chief authority. 
These were, the map of Robert de Melkeleia, that of 
the abbey of Waltham, that in the king's chamber at 
Westminster, and that of Matthew Paris. 

The map to which more especially I have now to 
call attention, is, as far as I can judge from the fac- 
simile, of the earlier half of the thirteenth century, 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 15 

and is certainly one of the most remarkable monu- 
ments of this kind now in existence. 

Its history is obscure ; it is preserved in Hereford 
Cathedral, and I understand that it was discovered 
under the floor of one of the chapels of that edifice. 
I have not been able to meet with the slightest traces 
of the person by whose orders it was made, who has 
caused himself to be represented in one corner as a 
knight on horseback attended by his page and his 
greyhound, and who has commemorated himself under 
the name of Richard of Haldhwham and LafFord : on 
the other side we read the following Anglo-Norman 
rhymes : — 

" Tuz ki cest estorie ont, 
Ou oyront, ou luront, ou veront, 
Prient a Jhesu en deyte, 

De Richard de Haldingham e de L afford eyt pite, 
Ki l'at fet e compasse, 
Ke joie en eel li seit done." 

This large map is founded on the popular cosmo- 
graphical treatises of the time, which generally com- 
mence with stating that Augustus Csesar sent out 
three philosophers to measure and survey the three 
divisions of the world, and that all geographical know- 
ledge was the result of their observations. The 
ground-work of this fable is found in the too literal 
interpretation of a passage of the Gospel of St. Luke: 
in the map before us, the philosophers are named 
Nichodoxus, Theodotus, and Policlitus ; and the em- 
peror is delivering to them their written orders, con- 
firmed by a very handsome mediaeval seal. The 
world is here represented as round, surrounded by 
the ocean. At the top of the map, which represents 
the east, we see Paradise, with the tree, and the 



16 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

figures of our first parents. Above is a large group 
representing the day of judgment, with the Virgin 
Mary interceding for those who have been faithful to 
her worship. The map is chiefly filled with long in- 
scriptions, comprising passages taken from Solinus, 
Isidore, &c, with figures of towns, and with draw- 
ings of the monstrous animals and peoples with which 
the mediaeval cosmographers peopled distant parts of 
the world. Many of the figures on this map manifest 
a remarkable degree of simplicity on the part of the 
author; such, for example, as the figure of Lot's 
wife changed into a statue of salt ; the labyrinth of 
Crete ; the columns of Hercules ; and the singular 
representations of Scylla and Charybdis. The four 
great cities are made especially prominent : Jerusalem 
is very distinctly figured as the centre of the world ; 
Babylon has its famous tower : Rome, the capital of 
the world, bears the inscription, — 

Roma caput mundi tenet orbis frena rotundi ; 

and Troy is described as Troja civitas bellicosissima. 

It will be seen at once that nearly the whole of 
this remarkable map is founded upon the more com- 
mon and older element of mediaeval geographical 
science, — that derived from the popular Roman 
writers. It was some time before much of the other 
two elements — the knowledge derived from the Ara- 
bians, and the result of mediaeval voyages of dis- 
covery, — found its way into monuments of this des- 
cription. The only particulars I have observed in 
the map which appear to be derived from the Arabs, 
are the mekesus civitas on the confines of Egypt and 
Arabia, which is perhaps Mecca, and Samarcand, 
which is here mentioned. On the western coast of 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 17 

Africa, the Canary Islands are indicated, which our 
geographer follows Pliny in supposing were inhabited 
by large dogs (canes), from which he derives the name. 

When we turn our eyes to the eastern part of the 
Hereford map, we cannot help being struck with the 
confused form given to the whole of Asia. This 
might certainly have been corrected by the know- 
ledge which must then have been derived from the 
frequent communications with the Arabs. As that 
knowledge increased, the limits of this part of the 
world were gradually carried further and further, 
until at length its figure was traced more correctly ; 
but it was long before people were disabused of the 
idea that Paradise occupied, as it does in our map, 
the extremity of the eastern continent. Perhaps 
many an adventurous monk wandered over the inter- 
vening lands in the hope of reaching this final object 
of his worldly pilgrimage, who might have told an 
interesting story of his adventures. They related 
in the monasteries of the east an old legend of a holy 
man who traversed Central Asia to the very precincts 
of Paradise, which he was not allowed to enter ; and 
they told how he met with pious hermits in the soli- 
tudes of the intervening countries. If we read the 
travels of the Arabian Ebn Batuta, we shall find that 
he also saw hermits in the interior of Asia, but they 
were the religious fanatics of India, and not Chris^ 
tians. This coincidence, however, would lead us to 
believe that there was some foundation for the 
monkish legend to which I have alluded. 

The great eagerness in the west for information 
relating to the interior of Asia was first roused by 
the fearful intelligence of the devastating irruption of 
the Tartars into Europe under Ghengis Khan, at 



18 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

the beginning of the thirteenth century. The dismay 
which this intelligence caused, even in England, can 
now with difficulty be imagined; and there were 
many who supposed that it was the bursting forth of 
the hordes of Gog and Magog, the precursors of the 
end of the world. Others took them for a race of 
demons. In this uncertainty, several monks were 
successively sent on pretended embassies to Ghengis 
Khan, but really with the object of gaining informa- 
tion as to the character of the people who followed his 
standard, and as to the countries from which they came. 
Some of these missionaries were carried into the in- 
terior of Asia as far as Thibet and the borders of 
China, and obtained information which tended ma- 
terially to alter the previously-existing geographical 
notions relating to that part of the world. The re- 
lations published by two of these ambassadors, Jean 
du Plan de Carpin and Guillaume de Rubruquis, 
both Frenchmen, are full of the most interesting 
details, and will bear a comparison with the works of 
travellers of a much later date. 

The free cities of Italy had now begun to show their 
pre-eminence in navigation, and displayed an extra- 
ordinary spirit of commercial enterprise. In the midst 
of the terrors excited by the conquests of the Tartars, 
Italian merchants were venturing even into the 
countries they were ravaging to seek a mart for their 
wares. It was with this view that the well-known 
Marco Polo of Venice, whose father and uncle had 
twenty years before travelled as far as Bokhara, accom- 
panied them in 1271 into the interior of Asia, and suc- 
ceeded in reaching China, where they gained the favour 
of the emperor and remained seventeen years. They 
returned slowly by way of Persia, and at last reached 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 19 

Venice in safety after an absence of twenty-four 
years. By the relation afterwards published by 
Marco Polo, the mystery which had so long enveloped 
the geography of Asia was entirely dispelled. Their 
success produced a number of imitators, and many 
attempts were made to reach the interior of Asia 
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. One of 
the most remarkable of these travellers was our 
countryman, sir John Maundeville, who, however, 
evidently never visited one quarter of the localities 
he describes, and who has disfigured his narrative 
with a number of marvellous stories, totally unworthy 
of credit, either exaggerated misrepresentations of 
what he had learnt from hearsay, or a mere repetition 
of the old fables of Solinus and Isidore, which ought 
now to have been expunged from the maps. 

There is one passage in the relation of sir John 
Maundeville which deserves our notice, as proving 
that the form of the earth was still, in the fourteenth 
century, a matter of discussion. 

In the seventeenth chapter of his Voiage and 
Travaile, Maundeville speaks of the " evylle customs 
used in the yle of Lamary," and adds : — 

" In that lond, ne in many othere beyonde that, 
no man may see the sterre transmontane, that is clept 
the sterre of the see, that is unmevable, and that is 
toward the northe, that we clepen the lode sterre. 
But men seen another sterre, the contrarie to him, 
thatjs toward the southe, that is clept antartyk. And 
right as the schipmen taken here avys here and 
governe hem be the lode sterre, right so don schip- 
men beyonde tho parties be the sterre of the southe, 
the whiche sterre apperethe not to us. And this 
sterre that is toward the northe, that wee clepen the 



20 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

lode sterre, ne apperethe not to hem. For whiche 
cause, men may wel perceyve that the lond and the 
see ben of rownde schapp and forme. For the partie 
of the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schew- 
ethe not in another contree. And men may well 
preven be experience and sotyle compassement of 
wytt, that gif a man fond passages be schippes, that 
wolde go to serchen the world, men myghte go be 
schippe alle aboute the world, and aboven and 
benethen." 

After giving, in support of his views, a series of 
astronomical observations he professes to have made 
with the astrolabe in different countries through 
which he had passed, Maundeville continues : — 

" And also I have seen the 3 parties of alle the 
roundnesse of the firmament, and more yit 5 degrees 
and an half. Be the whiche I seye you certeynly, 
that men may envirowne alle the erthe of alle the 
world, as wel undre as aboven, and turnen agen to 
his contree, that hadde companye and schippynge and 
conduyt ; and alle weyes he scholde fynde men, 
londes, and yles, als wel as in this contree. For yee 
wyten welle, that thei that ben toward the antartyk, 
thei ben streghte feet agen feet of hem that dwellen 
undre the transmontane ; als wel as wee and thei that 
dwellyn under us, ben feet agenst feet. For alle the 
parties of see and of lond han here appositees, habi- 
tables or trepassables, and thei of this half and beyond 
half." 

And in further confirmation, he repeats the follow- 
ing curious story, which is peculiarly interesting, as 
showing the popular notions which were then 
gradually spreading themselves abroad : — 

" And therfore hathe it befallen many tymes of o 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 21 

thing that I have herd cownted, whan I was yong, 
how a worthi man departed somtyine from oure con- 
trees for to go serche the world. And so he passed 
Ynde, and the yles beyonde Ynde, where ben mo 
than 5000 yles : and so longe he wente be see and 
lond, and so enviround the world be many seysons, 
that he fond an yle, where he herde speke his owne 
langage, callynge on oxen in the plowghe suche 
wordes as men speken to bestes in his owne contree ; 
whereof he hadde gret mervayle, for he knewe not 
how it myghte be. But I seye, that he had gon so 
longe, be londe and be see, that he had envyround 
alle the erthe, that he was comen agen envirounynge, 
that is to seye, goynge aboute, unto his owne marches, 
gif he wolde have passed forthe, til he had founden 
his contree and his owne knouleche. But he turned 
agen from thens, from whens he was come fro ; and 
so he loste moche peynefulle labour, as him self seyde, 
a gret while aftre, that he was comen horn. For it 
befelle aftre that he wente into Norweye ; and there 
tempest of the see toke him ; and he arry ved in an 
yle ; and whan he was in that yle, he knew wel that 
it was the yle where he had herd speke his owne lan- 
gage before, and the callynge of the oxen at the 
plowghe : and that was possible thinge." 

The discoveries in the east, as we have seen, took 
first a surpassing importance from accidental circum- 
stances. Multitudes of minor discoveries, known 
only within a small circle of persons, or committed 
to a single manuscript which was forgotten till it 
perished, never found a permanent place in science. 
It was only after the invention of printing, when 
copies of books were so easily multiplied, that facts 
once obtained became available to every scholar, and 



22 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

thus contributed with certainty to the general ad- 
vance of knowledge. In the course of our researches 
into mediaeval documents, we are continually making 
the discovery that some of what are looked upon, 
with least hesitation, as the inventions of modern 
science were known to the scholars at that period, 
when science flourished in so extraordinary a manner 
in the mediaeval universities. 

Of these, one of the most remarkable instances is 
the mariner's compass, which is now known to have 
been in common use in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries among the English and French navigators, 
although, it is true, in rather a rude form. Two 
poems of the thirteenth century give very curious 
descriptions of the compass as then used. The Bible 
Guiot de Provins, a satire on the vices of the age, 
wishes that the pope were as safe a guide to Chris- 
tians as the polar star is to mariners, and adds : — 

" Un art font qui mentir ne puet " They make a contrivance which cannot lie 

Par la vertu de la maniete : By the virtue of the magnet : 

Une pierre laide et brunete, An ugly and brownish stone, 

Ou li fers volentiers se joint, To which iron spontaneously joins itself, 

Ont ; si esgardent le droit point. They have ; and they observe where it points, 

Puis c'une aguile i ont touchie, After they have caused a needle to touch it, 

Et en un festu 1'ont couchie, And placed this in a rush, [more. 

En l'eve le metent sanz plus, They put it in the water without anything 

Et li festuz la tient desus; And the rush keeps it on the surface ; 

Puis se torne la pointe toute Then its point turns direct 

Contre l'estoile si sanz doute, Towards the star with such certainty, 

Que ja nul horn n'en doutera, That no man will ever have any doubt of it, 

Ne ja por rien ne fausera. Nor will it ever for anything go false. 

Qant la mers est obscure et brune, When the sea is dark and hazy, 

Con ne voit estoile ne lune, That they can neither see star nor moon, 

Dont font a l'aguille alumer, Then they place a light by the needle. 

Puis n'ont il garde d'esgarer : After which they have no fear of going 

Contre l'estoile va la pointe, Towards the star goes the point, [wrong : 

Por ce sont li marinier cointe Whereby the mariners have the skill 

De la droite voie tenir. To keep the right way. 

C'est une ars qui ne puet faillir." It is an art which cannot fail." 

In a love song, of nearly the same date, the lover 
compares his mistress to the polar star, to which he, 
the magnet, ever points ; and describes in a similar 
manner how the voyagers by sea construct the com- 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 23 

pass by which they discover the position of the polar 
star in dark or cloudy weather : — 

" Li marinier qui vont en Frise, 
En Gresse, en Acre, ou en Venisse, 
Sevent par li toute la voie." 

Similar descriptions of the use of the magnetic 
needle are found in the writings of Brunetto Latini, 
the preceptor of the poet Dante, which represent the 
invention, it is true, in a very primitive form ; but 
since the above was written, I have discovered in an 
earlier writer, Alexander Neckam, descriptions of the 
mariner's compass much more definite, and making 
us acquainted with the instrument in a more perfect 
form. The first of these descriptions is contained 
in the work of this author entitled De Utensilibus, 
compiled probably before the year 1187, and intended 
as a vocabulary of Latin words, by describing the 
various objects on which they were employed. In 
speaking of the things necessary on shipboard, Neckam 
says, the ship must also have a " needle placed on a 
pivot, which will turn about until the point is directed 
towards the north, and thus the navigators will know 
how to direct their course when the polar star is con- 
cealed by the state of the atmosphere, though this 
star never disappears under the horizon on account 
of the smallness of the circle it describes."* In an- 
other work by the same author, his treatise DeNaturis 

* Qui ergo munitam vult habere naveni .... habeat etiani 
acum jaculo superpositam ; rotabitur enini et circumvolvetur 
donee cuspis acus respiciat septentrionem, sicque comprehen- 
dent quo tendere debeant nautse cum cynosura latet in aeris 
turbatione, quamvis ea occasum nunquam teneat propter cir- 
culi brevitatem. 



24 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WORLD 

Rerum, the mariner's compass is again described in 
the following terms : — " The navigators who pass the 
seas, when the light of the snn is concealed by clouds, 
or when the world is involved in the shades of night, 
and they know not to what point of the horizon their 
ship points, consult the needle or magnet, which 
moves about in a circle, until, when it becomes motion- 
less, its point is directed towards the north."* I have 
printed these curious notices in the " Volume of Vo- 
cabularies," published at the expense of Mr. Mayer, 
of Liverpool; but I give them in the notes below 
with the very ingenious emendations of the distin- 
guished geographer, my friend Monsieur D'Avezac, 
the president of the Geographical Society of Paris, 
which he has sucro-ested in a memoir in the transactions 
of that society. If M. D'Avezac's readings should 
not prove to be exactly those of Alexander Neckam's 
original text, I am satisfied that they give the exact 
sense of passages which were rather obscure in the 
text furnished by the manuscript. It is quite evi- 
dent from them that the mariner's compass, as now 
used, was well known in the twelfth century, and 
M. D'Avezac has shown good reasons for believing 
that all that was done by Flavio Gioia, the reputed 
inventor of the mariner's compass in the fifteenth 
century, was to place the needle and its pivot in a 
closed box, named in Italian bossolo, or bussolo, be- 
cause it was made of box-wood (bosso), and hence the 

* Nautae etiam mare legentes, cum beneficium claritatis solis 
in tempore nubilo non sentiunt, aut etiam cum caligine noctur- 
narum tenebrarum mundus obvolvitur, et ignorant in quern 
mundi cardinem prora tendat, acum sive magnetem inspiciunt, 
qua? circulariter circumvolvitur usque dum, ejus motu cessante, 
cuspis ipsius septentrionalem plagam respiciat. 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 25 

Italian name bussolo, and the French boussole, were 
eventually given to the whole instrument. 

With the certainty that the mariner's compass was 
known to the mediaeval navigators, we have no diffi- 
culty in comprehending how they often ventured 
upon distant voyages, and even at times boldly threw 
themselves out upon the ocean in search of adven- 
tures and discoveries. But here, deeply implanted 
superstitions and prejudices of a variety of kinds 
came to place a bar to further discoveries, until 
they were broken down by some lucky accident, or 
by the superior intelligence of some extraordinary 
individual. The ancients supposed that the sea to 
the north of Britain was not navigable, on account 
of the rigour of the climate, which, as they imagined, 
rendered the water thick and stiff. The Arabs had 
precisely the same notion with respect to the sea of 
the torrid zone, the moisture of which they believed 
was so much sucked by the heat of the sun, that the 
water was thickened so as to be impassable by ships. 
This belief for a long time presented an insurmount- 
able check to the progress of discovery along the coast 
of Africa, until it was contradicted by the accidental 
experience of ships which were carried by stress of 
weather beyond the supposed limit, or by the bold- 
ness of individual enterprise. It is probable that 
many adventurers, who have left no memorial of 
their actions, led the way to the more important dis- 
coveries of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. 

If we turn our eyes towards the west, we shall see 
that the middle ages have also left us a considerable 
number of mysterious traditions of voyages, which 
would seem to indicate attempts at least to explore 
the ocean in the direction of America. The Arabian 

II. c 



26 ON THE ANCIENT MAP OF THE WOKLD 

navigators of Portugal are said to have sailed across 
the Atlantic in the middle of the twelfth century. 
The most remarkable of the Christian traditions on 
this subject is the marvellous legend of St. B randan, 
who, after wandering on the western seas for seven 
years, is said at length to have reached Paradise. 
Indeed, during the middle ages, all those who were 
initiated in science knew well that the earth was a 
sphere; and the idea of going to Paradise by sea, 
instead of going thither by land, must have struck 
many persons. We are even told that the sailors 
of Columbus, as they approached the coasts of Ame- 
rica, imagined for a time that they had reached the 
precincts of the terrestrial Paradise. But the bar- 
rier raised by superstition against proceeding in this 
direction, was stronger even than that which limited 
the progress of the ancient navigators to the south. 
It was easy to talk of science and theory, but when 
it was the moment to put this into practice, popular 
credulity often gained the mastery over science which 
was still uncertain; and in the particular instance 
now alluded to, every one was more or less awed by 
the mysterious fear, that if they advanced in that 
direction in search of Paradise, it was not impossible 
that midway they might fall into hell ! — for they were 
not sure that at a certain distance in the west there 
was not a gulf in the sea which conducted to the 
infernal regions. In an early Anglo-Saxon tract, 
intended to convey abstruse information in the form 
of dialogue, but filled with the popular legends of the 
age, to the question, " Tell me why is the sun so red 
in the evening ?" the answer is, " Because it looketh 
down upon hell." 

Moreover, although it was generally understood 



PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 27 

that the earth was spherical, there were various po- 
pular notions as to the manner in which it was sus- 
pended, and to the form and position of the ocean. 
Some seemed to think that it was like an egg in an 
egg-cup, the upper portion of which was alone ex- 
posed ; others thought, as I have already stated, that 
it was like an orange swimming in the sea. Some, 
unacquainted with the nature of gravitation, sup- 
posed that after you had passed a certain limit, you 
were in danger of dropping oif from the earth's sur- 
face. However, as early as the fourteenth century, 
such errors appear to have been gradually disappear- 
ing; and stories and conjectures, like those which I 
have quoted from Sir John Maundeville, were the 
real precursors of the discovery of America. 





XIV. 
ON THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 






THINK few will deny that our attention 
could hardly be called to a more interest- 
ing or more important subject than that 
of the language we speak. Language is in 
a manner the index of our existence, it is intimately 
connected with all our domestic relations as well as 
with our relations to other peoples, and the history of 
our own language is specially to us that of ourselves 
as a race of mankind. We have reason, therefore, 
to be surprised that it is a subject with which people 
in general are little acquainted, and that it has 
hitherto been taught so imperfectly and so incorrectly 
in our ordinary course of education ; and this I am 
sure will be accepted as my excuse for taking it for 
my subject on the present occasion. 

Some fifteen centuries ago, a great portion of 
Europe was absorbed in the vast empire of Rome, 
which included this island, with the exception of the 
wild districts of the extreme north, and which on the 
continent had a varying frontier extending from the 
Rhine to the Danube. With few exceptions, such 
as those of the Armoricans and the Aquitanians (re- 



HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 29 

presented by the modern population of Britany and 
the Basque countries) and that of Greece, Rome had 
imposed her own language upon the conquered 
provinces, and at the time of which I am speaking, 
the population of as much of western Europe as 
formed part of the empire, spoke generally the Latin 
tongue. I believe that this was strictly the case 
with the Roman province of Britain, and that nearly 
four hundred years of uninterrupted occupation, 
with a current of recruits of all sorts to the colonists, 
perhaps in proportion more continual even than that 
in modern times of the United States of America, 
had entirely effaced the primitive character of its 
population. The Celtic race, driven everywhere 
before the civilization of Rome or the hostility of the 
Teutons, had found its last refuge to the West in 
Ireland, and I am inclined to think that we must 
look to the Irish language as the real representative 
of the Celtic dialects which were spoken in Britain 
before its occupation by the Romans. It appears to 
me most probable that the population of the North 
of Scotland was Teutonic — German or Scandinavian. 
On the Continent, the vast sweep of territory to the 
north of the Roman frontier, in nearly its whole 
extent, was occupied by the great Teutonic race, in 
its various divisions of High German, in which the 
Goths were included, Low German, occupying the 
countries in the west up to the Danish peninsula, 
and Scandinavian, which included the Danes and the 
Swedes, the Norwegians, and North-western islanders 
— in fact, the Northmen. 

It is no part of my plan to enter further into the 
divisions of the Teutonic race on the Continent, or 
into their relations with the empire. You all know 



30 ON THE HISTOEY OF THE 

that the Teutons eventually overrun and conquered 
the Roman provinces, and that three distinct tribes 
of the Low Germans, — the Angles, the Saxons, and 
the Jutes, — made themselves masters of Britain. 
The establishment of the Teutons in the Roman 
provinces brought with it a change of language, as 
well as of manners and political feelings, on one part 
or the other, according to a variety of circumstances 
into which I will not now enter. On the Continent, 
over nearly the whole extent of the western empire, 
the modern languages are derived from the Latin, 
and were known during the whole period of the 
middle ages by the name of Roman. In England 
the Teutonic language completely superseded the 
Latin, for several causes, of which one was no doubt 
the circumstance, that for a long period previous to 
the final breaking up of the western empire, the 
population of Britain had been continually and 
largely increased by the immigration of German 
settlers, so that the German spirit was far more 
powerful than the Roman. 

The notion will naturally suggest itself to you, 
that, as three different Teutonic peoples conquered 
the island of Britain, they must have imported into 
it three languages instead of one. This notion, how- 
ever, is only correct in a certain sense; for the 
languages talked by the different German tribes, or 
states, had not at that time so far diverged in form 
as to hinder them from easily intermixing and coalesc- 
ing. The different branches of the Low Germans 
could not only understand one another with perfect 
ease, but they could probably intercommunicate with 
their next neighbours, either of the High German 
tongue or of the Scandinavian, with at least as little 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 31 

difficulty as at the present day a Lancashire peasant 
would discourse with a Yorkshireman. In fact, 
what are now distinct languages were then repre- 
sented only by cognate dialects. There can be no 
doubt that there was a strong difference of dialect, 
from the earliest period of their settlement in this 
island, between the languages spoken by the Angles, 
the Saxons, and the Jutes, and these divisions were 
the foundations of the great classes of the modern 
dialects of England. The Jutes, represented chiefly 
by the kingdom of Kent, were the least numerous of 
the three Teutonic peoples of Britain, and although, 
probably from their position, they had at an early 
period attained to a great degree of commercial pros- 
perity, riches, and power, they exercised no permanent 
influence, either political or much less literary, on the 
great Anglo-Saxon confederacy. It was the Angles, 
who were numerically by far the most powerful of 
the Teutonic settlers, who first took the lead in in- 
telligence and in literature. The earliest literary 
productions of the Anglo-Saxons, and the oldest 
Anglo-Saxon traditions known, appear to belong 
chiefly to the family of the Angles, and their influence 
over the rest was so great, that not only did these 
accept from them the general title of Englisc, but 
even the nations of the continent who had preserved 
the Roman language, generally agreed in giving to the 
Teutonic population of Britain the name of Angli, 
Thus we derive from this one branch of the triple 
composition of our race the national name of which 
we are proud, that of Englishmen, and it is from them 
that our language was called English. Neverthe- 
less, the Anglian division of the race fell in the course 
of the eighth century under the superior influence of 



32 ON THE HISTOKY OF THE 

the Saxons, and Wessex, or the kingdom of the 
West-Saxons, not only gave us finally our line of 
kings, but furnished us with the model of our 
language and literature. The written English lan- 
guage of the present day is founded upon that dialect 
in which king Alfred wrote, and which held in Saxon 
England somewhat the same position as the Attic 
dialect in ancient Greece. With this change in the 
predominance of race, the term Saxon came into 
more frequent use to designate the Teutonic popula- 
tion of this island, and, as there continued to be 
Saxons on the Continent as well as in England, it 
has become the practice to call our own ancestors, by 
way of distinction, and not as indicating an amalga- 
mation of race, the Anglo-Saxons, that is, the 
Saxons of England. Yet so permanent are early 
ethnological principles, that though the Saxon 
dynasty, the Saxon dialect, and the Saxon laws, 
became those of the whole Anglo-Saxon people, the 
older and particular designation has outlived all 
changes in the names we now possess of Englishmen, 
the English language, and England. 

The Anglo-Saxon language — under which appella- 
tion we now include the language of the Teutonic 
settlers in Britain in its three great divisions — was 
one hardly less complicated in its grammatical forms 
and inflections, when first introduced into this island, 
than that of ancient Greece. But, at the earliest 
period at which we know it, the Anglo-Saxon language 
was already undergoing a degradation from its primi- 
tive forms and all the other changes to which lan- 
guages in general are subject. At the end of the 
Saxon period much of the language had already 
become obsolete. In the first place, it was very 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 33 

copious in words, and one word to express a particu- 
lar idea was continually going out of fashion to give 
place to another. In the second* place, a very im- 
portant portion of the language in the earlier stage of 
its history, that of poetry, had become obsolete in the 
mass. The language of poetry in Anglo-Saxon was 
originally distinguished, not only by its peculiar 
phraseology, but by the use of a class of words which 
were rarely met with in the ordinary language of 
life, and which evidently belonged to the minstrel 
class, and to what we may call the heroic age. The 
writers of poetry at a later period seem to have lost 
the command of this language, and their verses, 
though still possessing the metrical forms, had become 
in other respects, of course with some exceptions, 
remarkably prosaic. I doubt whether people in 
general, at the close of the Anglo-Saxon period, 
understood the older language of poetry, and very 
few of its words were carried forward into semi- 
Saxon or preserved in later English. 

I am one of those who do not believe in the exist- 
ence of a Celtic element in the English language.* 

* It must not be forgotten that the Teutonic and Celtic 
languages are, after all, • only two branches from the same 
original stock, and we very naturally expect to find a great 
number of roots common to both, and similar forms of words 
presenting themselves with similar meanings, without any 
reason for supposing that the one language borrowed them 
from the other. Moreover, I am perfectly satisfied that the 
Welsh language, as we know it, contains a considerable number 
of words which have been taken directly, not only from Anglo- 
Saxon, or English, but from Anglo-Norman also, and the 
former perhaps, only came into the Welsh language since the 
Norman Conquest. These two circumstances seem to me quite 
sufficient to account for the verbal coincidences pointed out in 
a paper by the Rev. J. Davies, recently published by the Philo- 
c 2 



34 



ON THE HISTORY OF THE 



I have no doubt that the Anglo-Saxons found in this 
island a people talking Latin, and if any portion of 
the population really continued to use the Celtic 
tongue, it must have been a small and unimportant 
class, who are not likely to have exercised any in- 
fluence on the language of the new conquerors. The 
evidences of this are numerous, and, to me at least, 
very satisfactory, but they do not form a part of our 
subject upon which I can dwell at present. The 
German race had a term for those who were of a 
different race from themselves, which was represented 
in Anglo-Saxon by the noun wealh, a foreigner, and 
by the adjective wodisc or wylisc, foreign, but which, 
as the Romans were the only race quite different 
from their own with which they had much acquaint- 
ance, they applied especially and almost solely to 
people speaking the Latin tongue. During the 
middle ages, the term Welsh, in the German lan- 
guages of the Continent, meant especially French, 
but was applied also to other neo-Latin dialects ; in 
German of the present day the same word (walscli) 
is applied peculiarly to the language and people of 
Italy. It was no doubt for the same reason, namely, 
that they were a people speaking Latin, that the 
Anglo-Saxons applied this word to the population 
they found in Britain, and it probably became ex- 
tended to what we now call Wales and the Welsh, 



logical Society, as far as those coincidences are real. We are 
not unacquainted with the history of the Anglo-Saxons in this 
country, and I believe that that history is quite contrary to the 
notion that at the time of the Norman Conquest there was any 
such mixture of the Celtic race with the Teutonic population 
as could have exercised any influence either on the language 
or on the character of the people. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 35 

merely because, when they subsequently became 
acquainted with them, the Anglo-Saxons confounded 
the inhabitants of that district with the other old in- 
habitants of South Britain. You must bear in mind, 
in considering this question, that our knowledge of 
the Anglo-Saxon language is after all imperfect, for 
our nomenclature is made up from written documents 
of a partial description, and there no doubt existed a 
great number of words in the Anglo-Saxon language 
which are now entirely lost. No doubt many words 
now found in the English language, and especially 
in the provincial dialects, of which the origin is 
now unknown, had their originals in pure Anglo- 
Saxon. 

If I object to the notion of a Celtic element in our 
language, I object no less to that of a mixture with 
any other Teutonic dialect. Our older philologists 
believed in a modification of the Anglo-Saxon during 
a certain period which they termed Dano- Saxon, 
supposing that they traced in it the marks of Danish 
influence ; but this theory has been entirely aban- 
doned by the best of our modern scholars, and there 
certainly are no proofs that such an influence ever 
existed.* The language which our forefathers spoke 
in the middle of the eleventh century was the same 
Low German dialect which they had brought with 
them into the island, with the mere changes which 
any language would undergo in itself during the 

* Of course I do not deny that our local dialects, in the parts 
occupied by them, may have derived some words from the 
Danes, but the pure Anglo-Saxon language was certainly not 
influenced by them. It has been the fashion of late years to 
ascribe much more to the Danes than I believe them to have 
any claim to. This, however, is a question the discussion of 
which would take us too far away from the present subject. 



36 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

transmission, under the same circumstances, through 
several centuries. 

At the period just mentioned, a great political 
event, the Norman conquest, brought into our island 
a new language, one of those which had grown out 
of the language of the Koman empire, French, as it 
was then talked and written in Normandy; and 
Anglo-Norman, as this neo-Latin dialect is usually 
termed, continued during two centuries from that 
time to be exclusively the language of the aristocracy 
of England. There were thus two entirely distinct 
languages, bearing no resemblance to each other, co- 
existent in different classes of the same nation, for we 
must not suppose that, for a moment, the Anglo- 
Saxon, or, as we must henceforward call it, the Eng- 
lish tongue, was abandoned or fell into disuse. It 
was long, indeed, an uncontradicted statement of our 
historians, that William the Conqueror made a deli- 
berate attempt to suppress the use of the Anglo- 
Saxon tongue in his new kingdom, and Ingulph, or 
rather probably the pretender who assumed his name, 
asserts that it was banished from schools, and that 
the French or Anglo-Norman was used in its place in 
teaching children the rudiments of Latin grammar. 
The former of these statements no longer receives 
any credit, and the latter is disproved by an abun- 
dance of positive evidence. We cannot, indeed, 
doubt that the Anglo-Saxon grammar of the Latin 
language by Alfric continued to be used in the Eng- 
lish schools until late in the twelfth century. Hicks, 
the Anglo-Saxon scholar, had in his possession a 
manuscript of Alfric's grammar, with an interlinear 
gloss of some of the Saxon words in Anglo-Norman, 
and from the examples he gives we may probably 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 37 

ascribe them to the first half of the twelfth century. 
This would seem to show that even a foreigner, 
employed as a teacher in England, had to use the 
Anglo-Saxon Latin grammar in his school, although 
his own knowledge of Anglo-Saxon was so imperfect 
that he was obliged to add a translation of the Anglo- 
Saxon words into Anglo-Norman for his own use. 
Further than this, Sir Thomas Phillipps found among 
the archives of Worcester cathedral some leaves of a 
copy of Alfric's grammar, written in the degraded 
form of the Anglo-Saxon language which prevailed in 
the middle and latter half of the twelfth century. The 
Anglo-Saxon language had, indeed, at this time under- 
gone considerable degradation from the form it pre- 
sented in the eleventh century. It was rapidly losing 
its grammatical inflections, and in its words broad 
sounds were exchanged for softer and quicker ones. 
Thus the final a was constantly exchanged for e, and 
the prefix ge was everywhere turned into y or i. For 
cempa, a champion, they said kempe ; for gemetung, a 
meeting, they said imeting ; and for gerefa, a prefect, 
they would say ireve. With this change, however, 
there was no considerable introduction of Norman 
words. It was pure Anglo-Saxon as to the substance, 
but degraded in its forms. Philologists have given 
to the language in this state of transition the name of 
semi- Saxon. We can trace its progress in several 
literary monuments of importance. The latter years 
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was continued 
to 1145, exhibit the language as already breaking 
very fast ; in the metrical chronicle of Layamon, and 
in the metrical harmony of the gospels called the 
Ormulum, which were both probably written in the 
closing years of the twelfth century, the Anglo-Saxon 



38 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

grammatical forms have undergone an entire change, 
which is still more complete in the semi- Saxon text 
of the Regulce Inclusarum, or rule of nuns, in the 
earlier half of the thirteenth century. It is evident 
from the character of these, and other literary remains 
of less importance, that the use of the English lan- 
guage, during the twelfth and first half of the thir- 
teenth centuries, was by no means confined to the 
lower classes of society, but it prevailed generally 
among the middle and educated classes, and among 
the clergy and in the monastic houses, at least in 
those devoted to females. 

It was in the middle of the thirteenth century, 
when the national spirit of the English people showed 
itself in the great popular struggle under Simon 
de Montfort, that the English language, which had 
now emerged from that transition state under which 
it has been known as semi- Saxon, at length asserted 
what we may call its political rights, and reappeared 
in the court. The political songs, and other writ- 
ings, composed during the civil strife known as the 
barons' wars, show us not only two, but three lan- 
guages, co-existing in this country at the same 
time. These were, the English, the Anglo-Norman, 
(or, as it was usually called at the time, the French,) 
and the Latin, of which we need not take the latter 
into consideration, as it belonged almost exclusively 
to the clergy. 

The long continued existence of what we call the 
Anglo-Norman language in this country was not a 
mere accident, but it was a consequence of the poli- 
tical condition of Europe. The feudal aristocracy 
was united throughout the whole extent of feudalism, 
by a community of interests as well as feelings, to 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 39 

such a degree, that the nobles of one country felt a 
closer relationship with those of another than with 
the unaristocratic classes of their own countries, or 
even with their own sovereign. This was so much 
the case that, until the spirit of feudal society began 
to decline, it was no uncommon thing for a baron to 
hold fiefs in the dominions of several different sove- 
reigns, and to form his alliances sometimes with the 
barons of one of these countries, and sometimes with 
those of another. A common language was, therefore, 
a necessary element in the system ; and as feudalism 
had originated in France, and took its greatest deve- 
lopment there, French became its universal language. 
It was, then, not only as the language of the Normans, 
but as that peculiarly of the feudal aristocracy in 
general, that French was introduced into England 
under William the Conqueror, and it was in that 
character that it continued to be the language of the 
aristocracy ofEngland until feudalism itself was broken 
down. It had ceased, however, to be their exclusive 
language in the thirteenth century. In the latter 
years of that century, a tract or treatise was written 
in French or Anglo-Norman verse, forming a sort of 
vocabulary of that language, and designed expressly 
for the purpose of teaching it to children. The num- 
ber of copies of this tract still preserved in MS. show 
that it was a popular elementary book, and that it 
was in extensive use. The compiler was Walter de 
Bibblesworth, a man known elsewhere as a writer of 
French verse and apparently belonging himself to the 
aristocratic class ; he was a friend of the great states- 
man of the reign of Edward I, Henry de Lacy earl 
of Lincoln and Salisbury, and compiled the treatise 
we are speaking of at the request of the lady Dionysia 



40 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

de Monchensey. Thus all the relations of the author 
and of his book were of an aristocratic character. 
Now Walter de Bibblesworth states his object to be 
to instruct the rising generation in the proper use of 
the words of the French language, and especially in 
the correct application of the genders, and the French 
words are explained in English, implying thus that 
the learner was acquainted with the English language 
before he began to learn French. We thus ascertain 
the very important fact that, before the end of the 
thirteenth century, the children of the aristocracy of 
England learned English before they were instructed 
in any other language, or, in other words, that Eng- 
lish had become their mother tongue. * 

Although, therefore, French was no doubt still 
looked upon as the peculiar language of the aristo- 
cracy, a new modification had taken place in the 
mutual position of the two languages, for, instead of 
their mere co-existence in the same country, but in 
two different classes or great divisions of society, we 
have them now co-existent in the same class. This 
change marked what may be considered as the birth 
of modern English literature. The English language 
now began among the aristocracy and at court to be 
adopted as that of our national poetry and prose, and 
to step into the place which had been usurped almost 

* This very curious monument of the educational system of 
the middle ages is printed in a volume of mediaeval vocabularies, 
Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-JSTorman, and English, recently published 
at the expense of Mr. Joseph Mayer, of Liverpool, to whom 
not only the Historic Society, but the science of Archeo- 
logy in general, is under so many obligations. These vocabu- 
laries are extremely valuable, as illustrating not only the his- 
tory of our language, but the manners and condition of our 
forefathers. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 41 

exclusively by the French or Anglo-Norman lan- 
guage during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 
With it, also, began the intermingling of the two 
languages, in consequence of which a large portion 
of the Anglo-Saxon language gradually became obso- 
lete. 

It is necessary, however, that this process of inter- 
mingling and becoming obsolete should itself be ex- 
plained, for we should form a very erroneous opinion if 
we supposed, as some who have treated on the subject 
seem to suppose, that there was any design or plan in 
the mixture. You will easily conceive how people talk- 
ing equally among themselves two different languages 
would be continually tempted to use, in one language, 
a word or words taken from the other, either because 
it was a favourite word with them, or, more usually, 
because it presented a more familiar picture of the 
object it was used to designate. Much more would 
this interchange of words take place, in the inter- 
communication between the class which used both 
languages and that which used nothing but English 
in regard of a number of words from the French lan- 
guage which custom had begun to affix to certain 
objects. Thus, we know well that the Anglo-Saxon 
table was formed merely by placing a board upon 
trestles at the time of eating, and that it was desig- 
nated simply by the name of a hoard. Permanent 
tables were probably known to the Saxon portion of 
our population only through the Normans, and as the 
former constantly heard them spoken of by this French 
name of table, they would naturally learn the word 
themselves, and, if they did not use it at first indis- 
criminately for the old description of table as well as 
the new one, it would become so completely iden- 



42 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

tified with the latter, that we are not surprised at the 
older English word being lost as the old practice was 
discontinued. In fact the Saxon word for a table can 
hardly be said to belong to the English language at 
the present day, yet, though we should be surprised 
at hearing anybody call a table a board, we still use 
the word in certain phrases derived from ancient cus- 
toms, and we speak of a " festive board," and talk of 
giving people " board and lodging," and of sitting at 
a council or committee board. Again, we know that 
an Anglo-Norman would call a sheep a mutton, while 
an Englishman of the Saxon race would call it a sheep, 
Now we know that in feudal times nearly the whole 
of the animal provisions of the estate was swept off 
into the castle or mansion of the landlord, where it 
was consumed in extravagant hospitality or salted 
down to keep in store for occasions when fresh meat 
could not be procured. There can be little doubt, 
from what we know of the condition of the people in 
the feudal ages, that the agricultural population, who 
among themselves knew the various animals alive by 
their Anglo-Saxon names, rarely tasted their flesh 
except when they sat in the halls or kitchens of their 
landlords, where they would hear it spoken of, and 
must ask for it, only by its Anglo-Norman name. 
Hence they would gradually become accustomed to 
call the animal a sheep, and the flesh of it, when dead, 
mutton. Thus we see how our language has become 
enriched by adopting in some cases the originally 
synonymous words of the two languages, and giving 
them a somewhat different meaning. All the usual 
articles of animal food have fallen under the circum- 
stances of the example just given. We speak of beef, 
mutton, veal, pork, by their Anglo-Norman names, 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 43 

while we continue to call the living animals by their 
Anglo-Saxon names of oxen, sheep, calves, and swine. 
Words connected with cooking have been similarly 
exchanged. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon word brcedan or 
bredan, to roast, has disappeared from our language, 
and the word we have adopted in its place is derived 
from the Anglo-Norman rostir, the modern French 
rotir. Roasting was in the middle ages practised 
chiefly with regard to fowls and smaller animals, while 
substantial meat was much more commonly boiled, 
perhaps partly from the circumstance that so great a 
portion of it was salted. Hence the Anglo-Saxon 
word seothan, to boil, held its position in the language 
much longer than brcedan ; and its representative, to 
seethe, can hardly yet be said to have become obso- 
lete. Nevertheless, it has virtually been long dis- 
placed by the Anglo-Norman word, to boil. Similarly 
the Anglo-Saxon word, hyrstan, to fry, has been 
superseded by the Anglo-Norman equivalent. The 
adoption of Anglo-Norman words in cookery may be 
explained by the same causes which influenced the 
change of the names of meats. The artizan and the 
manufacturer, on the other hand, have generally pre- 
served the Anglo-Saxon names connected with their 
occupations, although we find these exchanged some- 
times for Anglo-Norman, under circumstances of 
which it would not be easy to give an explanation. 
Thus we learn from the vocabularies that the Anglo- 
Saxon name for a carpenter's plane was locer, which 
appears to have become obsolete early in the Anglo- 
Norman period, for we have long known no other 
than the Anglo-Norman name. Indeed, it would be 
most dangerous to attempt to form any general rule 
upon such examples as these, for, whatever rule it 



44 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

might be, when we attempt to apply it we should 
find nothing but exceptions. Thus, from the strict- 
ness with which game was preserved by the feudal 
barons, we might suppose that the different animals 
which came under that designation would have re- 
ceived Anglo-Norman names, yet the names the 
animals of the chase still bear in our language, such 
as a deer, a hart, a roe, a hare, are all Anglo-Saxon, 
while, singularly enough, among the birds which come 
under the head of game the partridge has lost its 
Anglo-Saxon names of ar^sc-henn or repining, the 
pheasant perhaps that of wor-hana, % and the heron 
that of hragra, in order to take their present name3 
which are purely Anglo-Norman. As war was so 
peculiarly the business of the feudal aristocracy, we 
might suppose that at all events the names for arms 
would be Anglo-Norman, yet we find that this is not 
the case, for we speak of a sword and not of an epee, 
of bows and arrows instead of arcs and Jletches, and 
we even usually call the lance, the distinctive arm of 
the knight, by its Anglo-Saxon name of a spear. 
What is still more remarkable, our language has pre- 
served the Anglo-Saxon word knight to distinguish 
the feudal warrior himself, instead of his Anglo- 
Norman name of chevalier. In the derivative from 

* It has been said, I know not on what authority, that the 
pheasant is a comparatively modern importation into our island. 
I can only say that it was certainly commonly known here in 
the twelfth century, and I am not aware of any reason for sup- 
posing that it was then a novelty. In the treatises on cookery 
and the service of the table, compiled in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, we have directions for dressing and serving it, as well as 
for catching it in the books on Venerie. The early Anglo- 
Saxon vocabularies interpret the Latin phasianus by wor-hana, 
which has been conjectured to mean a weed-hen. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 45 

this word, however, although the two court poets of 
their age, Chaucer and Gower, used the English word 
knighthode, for chivalry, the French word has subse- 
quently superseded it. When we go to other classes 
of subjects, the caprice shoAvn in the adoption of 
words from either language is still more incompre- 
hensible. Thus, it would be difficult to say why, 
among flowers, we have adopted the Anglo-Norman 
names of lilies, violets, dandelion, germander, plan- 
tain, &c, and have retained the Anglo-Saxon ones of 
daisies, cowslips, thistles, honeysuckles, and a nume- 
rous list of others ; or why, in some cases, we have 
preserved the Anglo-Saxon names of fish, such as 
whales, seals, lobsters, crabs, eels,&c, when others have 
been abandoned to adopt in their places such names 
as salmon, tenches, sturgeons, gudgeons, perches, 
lampreys, and some others, which are Anglo-Norman. 
We can indeed discover no general law or rule which 
influenced in any degree the adoption of particular 
words from one language or the other. The two 
languages continued long to exist independently, and 
people who wrote in English might adopt at their 
own caprice a word from one or the other. 

In one respect, however, these two languages in 
England stood on a very different footing, for, while 
the Anglo-Norman words which were finally rejected 
from our written language, ceased to exist among us 
with the language itself, a vast number of the Anglo- 
Saxon words which disappeared from the English 
language as it was written and spoken in cultivated 
society, were preserved among the populace and the 
peasantry, and contributed to form the trivial lan- 
guage of the common people, or, much more exten- 
sively, of our provincial dialects. Words are easily 



46 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

rejected from the language of cultivated society, but 
the tenacity with which the peasantry especially, and 
the lower classes of the population generally, retain 
the old words and phraseology of their mother tongue, 
through many ages, is truly extraordinary. One or 
two examples have occurred to me which I think 
deserve to be remembered. The Anglo-Saxon voca- 
bulary of archbishop Alfric, compiled in the tenth 
century, gives the Latin and Anglo-Saxon equiva- 
lents, " constructio, vel instructio, hyrdung." The 
modern Anglo-Saxon lexicographers, puzzled by the 
Latin words, appear to have been able to make nothing 
of the Anglo-Saxon word hyrdung, and have given it 
in their dictionaries without explanation. The natural 
derivation of it would be from the verb hyrdan, to 
guard, or keep. Now, you can hardly pass for any 
length of time through the streets of our larger 
towns without seeing, in one place or another, a 
house in the process of repairing or rebuilding, and 
you will generally see that it is surrounded with 
a tolerably lofty and strong frame-work of boards, 
for the protection of the work and the workmen. If 
you ask the latter what they call this wooden frame- 
work, they will tell you at once a hoarding. I have 
little doubt that this is the identical hyrdung of the 
Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, especially as it is there 
placed among one or two other words connected with 
building; and you will thus see that our common 
builders have actually preserved, during the vicissi- 
tudes of eight centuries, a word which seemed so 
entirely lost to the world that by them alone we are 
able to give it an explanation in an Anglo-Saxon 
dictionary. An English-Latin dictionary of the fif- 
teenth century, known by the title of the Prompto- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 47 

rium Parvulorum, furnishes us with another example. 
You will there find, under the letter L, the words, 
" Locchester, wyrm," meaning that locchester was the 
name of a kind of worm, and the Latin equivalent 
multipes is added. Now, as the word worm had in 
Anglo-Saxon and Old-English a very extensive mean- 
ing, and as the Latin multipes, meaning simply an 
animal with many feet, was not much more definite ; 
the modern editor of the Promptorium Parvulorum, 
Mr. Way, was unable to fix the exact meaning of 
the English word — and there seemed no means left 
of ascertaining it, until, one day, my friend, Mr. 
Halliwell, walking in a garden in Oxfordshire, ac- 
cidentally overheard the gardener talking about 
lockchesters, and immediately asking him what these 
were, received for answer that they were woodlice. 
On a further inquiry he ascertained that lockchest, 
or lockchester, was not an uncommon word in some 
parts of Oxfordshire for a woodlouse, although it 
was rapidly going out of use. As the Promptorium 
Parvulorum was compiled in Norfolk, this must, in 
the fifteenth century, have been an ordinary word 
for a woodlouse, and not confined to a particular loca- 
lity. Again, reading one of the comedies of the age 
of Charles II, " The Cheats," published in 1662, the 
scene of which is laid in London, I meet with the 
following language, put into the mouth of one of the 
characters : " O my child, my child, thy father is 
prettie hoddie again, but this will break his heart 
quite." The old dictionaries give the word hoddy as 
meaning hearty, or strong ; but I have looked in vain 
for it in any dictionary of the present day, until I 
happened to open a glossary of the East Anglian 
dialect, in which I find that the word still exists in the 



48 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

sense of "well; in good spirits." It appears clear, 
from this and other examples which I could quote 
from the writings of the same period, that a multi- 
tude of words were in general use in the common 
language of England so late as the latter half of the 
seventeenth century, which now exist only in some 
local dialect. This shows us the great importance, 
in a philological point of view, if in no other, of col- 
lecting and publishing the words of our provincial 
dialects. 

These dialects show us in many ways the curious 
manner in which the Anglo-Saxon language was 
broken up for the formation of modern English. It 
must not be supposed that Anglo-Saxon words be- 
came obsolete merely because they were displaced 
from the English language by Anglo-Norman words, 
for words of Anglo-Saxon origin were continually 
displacing one another. In the first place, the Anglo- 
Saxon language, as I have remarked before, was 
copious in words, and it often happens that out of a 
number of names for the same thing, or verbs ex- 
pressing the same or a similar action, one or two only 
have survived. In the second place, it seems evi- 
dent that among; the Anglo-Saxons themselves there 
were numerous words, then only used in popular 
conversation or in particular districts, which, in the 
course of time, gained the superiority over their 
prouder synonyms, and finally superseded them. 
Hence, while a great number of what are known to 
have been good Anglo-Saxon words have been ex- 
pelled from the English language, their places have 
been taken by others, also no doubt Anglo-Saxon, 
which are so strange to us that all we can absolutely 
say of them is, that they are not Anglo-Norman. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 49 

This, also, will perhaps be best illustrated by a few 
examples. I will take the first from the language of 
agriculture. The only word we find used in the 
Anglo-Saxon writers for a plough is sulh, yet we are 
certain that some such word as ploh or plog, with this 
meaning, did exist in that language, not only because 
we know that plough is not an Anglo-Norman word, 
but because we find the word ploh used once in the 
Anglo-Saxon laws to signify what was afterwards 
called a ploughland, because an Anglo-Saxon eccle- 
siastical document speaks of a tax levied by the church 
on the agriculturists under the title of ploit-celmesse, 
for which another document gives the synonym sulh- 
celmesse, and because, further, we find the represen- 
tative of the word in the modern German is pflug. 
What, therefore, must have been in the Anglo-Saxon 
period only a popular, or an almost obsolete, name for 
a plough, has actually in the modern English lan- 
guage superseded the regular Anglo-Saxon name of 
a plough, sulk, which now only exists in the dialects 
of the West of England, where a plough is still called 
by the peasantry a sull, sullow, or sowl. * The Anglo- 
Saxons had several verbs to signify the operation of 

* It is curious that the word sullow for a plough, with ban- 
nut for a walnut, and one or two other words, now peculiar to 
the dialects in the west of England, and not found, as far as I 
know, in any of the old English writers, occur in a Latin and 
English vocabulary of the earlier part of the fifteenth century, 
printed in the same volume of vocabularies mentioned in a 
former note as published under the auspices of Mr. Mayer, 
and evidently compiled in that part of the island. This 
would seem to show that even the verbal peculiarities of 
the principal English dialects are much older than we might 
otherwise be led to suppose, and perhaps even this has some 
connection with the history of the wordsw/A and plough, as given 
in the text. 

ii. r> 



50 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

ploughing, such as erian, fyrian, and tilian. Of these, 
the first, in the form to ere or to ear, remained in 
general use in the English language until the six- 
teenth century, and is perhaps still in use in some of 
the local dialects. Fyrian is only retained in the 
sense of to furrow, or make furrows ; and tilian 
remains in the more general sense of to till the ground. 
We now, in English, call the operation only plough- 
ing, from the name of the machine used in perform- 
ing it. Again, the only Anglo-Saxon word we know 
for a window is eage-thyrl, meaning literally an eye- 
hole, from which we derive a more vivid picture of 
the sort of openings by which the interior of an Anglo- 
Saxon house was lighted than a long description 
would convey to us. Larger openings for light came 
into use probably in Norman times, and they, as well 
as all windows, were called by the Anglo-Normans 
fenestres, in modern French fenetres. It is a curious 
circumstance that the Teutonic dialects on the Con- 
tinent have generally adopted the French word, which 
of course represents the Latin fenestra ; in modern 
German a window is called afenster. Yet the Eng- 
lish language has thrown off what would have been 
its Anglo-Norman word fenester, and has retained in 
its place not the Anglo-Saxon word we know, but 
another, which does not occur among the words of 
the Anglo-Saxon language that have been preserved, 
though I think that the English word window is found 
as early as the thirteenth century, and it is doubtless 
a purely Anglo-Saxon word, and bears the same re- 
lation to wind which the Spanish word ventdna for a 
window bears to viento. Again, among the Anglo- 
Saxon names for a sword are siveord, seax, bill, brand, 
mece, and ord. Of these, the last signified literally 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 51 

the edge of a weapon, and it and the three preceding 
words belonged properly to the language of poetry, and 
therefore soon became obsolete. The word seax has 
also been lost, and sword has superseded all the others. 
The principal Anglo-Saxon words for an arrow were 
arewa, fia, sceaft, and strcel. The first is the only 
one of the four which remains in its original sense, al- 
though fia, or flo was retained till the fifteenth cen- 
tury, and in Sussex they still call an arrow a streal. 
The common Anglo-Saxon names for a river, taking 
them in alphabetical order, were, becc, broc, burne, ea, 
flod, rith, or ryth, and stream. The precedence of all 
these has been taken by the Anglo-Norman word 
rivere. The word ea, which appears to have been the 
most general Anglo-Saxon word for a river, has only 
remained in the innumerable names of localities, into 
the composition of which it enters. Rith is also lost. 
Broc remains in the modern brook, while burn is 
preserved in a similar sense in the dialects of the 
North of England, and becc continues to exist in 
the beck of some of the northern provincial dia- 
lects, and in the bache of the dialects of the Welsh - 
border. Of the ordinary Anglo-Saxon names for a 
hall, heal, caffertun, inburh, sal, and sele, the first 
is the only one preserved in the English language, 
although the two last might have been supposed to 
have had the greater chance of lasting, as being iden- 
tical with the Anglo-Norman word sale. Another 
curious instance of the capricious character of these 
word-revolutions and vicissitudes in our language is 
furnished by the names of the rabbit. It is some- 
what remarkable that the Anglo-Saxon dictionaries 
give us no word for a rabbit, but from the thirteenth 
to the beginning of the last century the common 
English name for this animal was a conig or cony. 



52 ON THE HISTOEY OF THE 

There is some room for doubt whether this word be 
Anglo-Norman, in which language a rabbit was called 
a connil or connin, or whether it be of Anglo-Saxon 
origin, for the same animal is still called in German 
kaninchen. Both, no doubt, represent the Latin 
cuniculus. But this word cony, for some cause or 
other, was in the last century entirely superseded by 
that of rabbit, which must no doubt have been an 
Anglo-Saxon word, because it is found in another 
Low German dialect, the Dutch, under the forms 
robbe and robbekin. It is found in the Prompto- 
rium Parvulorum of the fifteenth century with the 
signification of a young rabbit — "Rabet, yonge conye, 
cunicellus." I do not remember having met with the 
word in the English language at an earlier period. 
I may quote another example of the movements and 
vicissitudes of words in our language from the nomen- 
clature of birds. The Anglo-Saxon vocabularies give 
to the Latin word turdus, the two interpretations 
scric and steer, and they explain the Latin merula by 
thrisc or throsle. Yet the Latin turdus is usually 
understood as meaning a thrush, and merula as signi- 
fying a blackbird. Under the Anglo-Normans the 
word mauvis, anglicised into mavis, was introduced 
to signify a thrush, and almost superseded the latter 
word in the English language, although throstel, or 
more usually throstel-cock, continued to be used. At 
the same time, the Anglo-Norman word merle, from the 
Latin merula, came in to signify a blackbird. This 
shows that the original meaning of the Latin merula 
was well known, and would lead us almost to sup- 
pose that the Anglo-Saxons may have meant a black- 
bird by thrisc and throstle. The English glossaries 
of the fifteenth century still interpret merula by 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 53 

thrystel-cock, and mauvis continued to be the English 
word for a thrush , and it long held its place in the 
language of literature. Nevertheless, the Anglo- 
Saxon words thrush and throstle have finally regained 
their position as the sole acknowledged names, in the 
English language, of the song- thrush, and have ex- 
pelled their Anglo-Norman equivalent mavis, and in 
this case it is the Anglo-Norman word that remains 
in our dialects. In the north of Essex, and I believe 
in other parts of East Anglia, a singing thrush is still 
called a mawis. One of the Anglo-Saxon equivalents 
of the Latin turdus is preserved in the schreech- thrush, 
a provincial name for the missel-thrush; and the 
other, stare, is now used in the signification of a star- 
ling. Again, the names cowslip, or cowslop, (cus- 
loppa,) and oxslip (oxan-slippd), are purely Anglo- 
Saxon, and have preserved their place in the language 
— though not quite undisputed, for another word 
paigle, the derivation of which seems very uncertain, 
though its form appears to bespeak an Anglo-Nor- 
man origin, had intruded itself into the English lan- 
guage before the sixteenth century. There is some 
reason for believing that the paigle was originally 
the oxslip. It was a word in common use among the 
English writers of the Elizabethan period ; yet it has 
now dropped into a provincial word, and, singularly 
enough, in Essex it seems to have changed places 
with cowslip. In the neighbourhood of Saffron- 
Walden the name paigle is given to the common 
cowslip (the primula veris), while the oxslip (the 
primula elatior), which is very abundant there, is 
called a cowslip. The language of natural history 
was especially rich and copious among our forefathers, 
whether Anglo-Saxon or English, which seems to show 



54 ON THE HISTOKY OF THE 

the existence among all classes, and at all periods, of 
a great love for nature, and a tendency to observe 
natural objects. In the comparatively small propor- 
tion which remains of the popular language of the 
Anglo-Saxons, we find numerous synonyms for plants, 
animals, birds, &c, many of which have been since 
lost, though some are preserved in a remarkable man- 
ner, and where we should least expect it. It is from 
this class of words especially that our provincial dia- 
lects are enriched. Thus, our Anglo-Saxon fore- 
fathers called a grasshopper a gcers-hoppa, (grass- 
hopper), or a gozrs-stapa (grass-stepper), or a hama, 
or a hil-hama, or a secge-scere (sedge-shearer), the 
first of which names only is preserved in the English 
language, and I am not aware that any of the others 
exist even in our local dialects. I find a woodlouse 
called, in vocabularies of the fifteenth century, a loc- 
chester, a lokdore, and a icelbode ; and in those of the 
sixteenth a cheselip, or cheslop, a kitchin-bole, and a 
woodlouse. Of these, the last only will be found in a 
dictionary of modern English, but I have already 
remarked that the name of lochchester is preserved 
among the peasantry of Oxfordshire, and I may add, 
that the peasantry in the North of England still call 
a woodlouse a kitchin-ball, and that those of the 
Southern dialects call it a chissel-bol, which is per- 
haps the representative of cheslop. The other two 
names appear to have become quite obsolete. In the 
Nomenclator, a copious Latin and English vocabu- 
lary, published in the year 1585, we have three sy- 
nonyms for the glowworm, namely, glowbird, glow- 
worm, and lightworm. I think that I have heard a 
glowworm called a glowbird in some one of our local 
dialects. The same vocabulary gives to a well-known 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 55 

plant, the leontodon taraxacum, the several names fol- 
lowing : dandelion, pries t's crown, swine's snout, monk's 
head, dog's teeth, and common cicorie. The first of 
these names, which is derived from the French, is 
the only one of them now acknowledged in the Eng- 
lish language ; I am not aware that any of the others 
are in use. The same vocabulary gives as synonyms, 
libbard's bane (i. e. leopard's bane), wolfs bane, and 
monk's hood. All these three names of plants are 
still preserved, but the first is applied to the doroni- 
cum pardalianches, and the two others to the aconitum 
napellus. Two names of the latter are recorded in 
the vocabularies of the Anglo-Saxon period, on- 
red and thung, neither of which is preserved in the 
language. These few examples, which might be mul- 
tiplied almost infinitely, will, I think, sufficiently 
explain how words have disappeared, and reappeared, 
in our language, and in its provincial dialects, and at 
the same time show that the further investigation of 
this part of the subject would not be without interest. 
But it is here a digression, which I must follow no 
longer. As I have already stated, the two languages 
representing Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman, but 
which at this period we may better describe as French 
and English, continued to exist in England indepen- 
dently during the whole of the fourteenth century, 
although there was a constant interchange of words 
going on between them. I do not mean to say that 
this interchange was then a permanent one, although 
a certain number of Anglo-Norman words had al- 
ready been firmly engrafted on the English tongue. 
We have no means of knowing what was the exact 
character of the language of popular conversation at 
this period, which we may, however, suppose to have 



56 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

been still very decidedly Saxon ; but we know that 
an English writer used just as many French words 
as he pleased, or as suited the class of readers to 
whom he addressed himself. Thus, one of the most 
remarkable poems in our language, the Visions of 
Piers Ploughman, which was put forth as the grand 
proclamation of a demand for popular reform and of 
the doctrines of popular freedom, is written not only 
in a language which contains a very small number of 
Anglo-Norman words, but it is composed in the same 
form of alliterative verse, without rhymes, which was 
peculiarly characteristic of pure Anglo-Saxon poetry. 
This sudden reappearance of the ancient Anglo-Saxon 
form of versification in the middle of the fourteenth 
century is itself a remarkable phenomenon, and it is 
an equally curious circumstance that this description 
of versification, which became thenceforward for some 
time popular among the people, is generally filled 
with a great number of purely Anglo-Saxon words, 
of a sort which we had long missed in English lite- 
rature, and which we had every reason for believing 
had long become obsolete. Yet it is not likely that 
men who wrote for popularity would use obsolete 
words, which they would hardly be likely to under- 
stand themselves, and which certainly would not be 
understood by their hearers or readers. We must, 
therefore, conclude that even down to the end of the 
fourteenth century, " among the people," the mass of 
the words of the Anglo-Saxon language, much of its 
phraseology and construction, and even its forms of 
versification, continued to exist. 

On the other hand, when people wrote for the 
aristocracy, or for the court, they adopted the French 
forms of verse, and filled their language with what 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 57 

we should now consider an extravagant proportion of 
French words. Such is the case in a great degree 
with Chaucer, who has been very erroneously termed 
" a well of English undefiled ; " and the reason why 
the writings of Chaucer are more easily understood by 
people in general than Piers Ploughman, or than many 
of the other literary monuments of the time, must be 
sought in the circumstance that a great proportion of 
the obsolete words in Chaucer are French, while 
nearly all those in the other writers alluded to are 
Anglo-Saxon, and as most modern readers have some 
knowledge of the French language, but very few 
know Anglo-Saxon, they are naturally less em- 
barrassed by the verses of the old court poet than by 
those of the man of the people. 

It will thus be understood that at the end of the 
fourteenth century the English language was in a 
very unsettled condition, and that in the hands of 
writers of different class or rank it assumed every 
variety of character, from that which presented the 
pure Anglo-Saxon element almost unmixed to that 
which was more than half French. Immediately 
after this period, the use of the French language in 
our island was entirely superseded by the English. 
It was the fifteenth century, low as it stood in literary 
character, which performed the great work of purging 
and purifying. By a process which we cannot dis- 
tinctly trace, and which we certainly cannot clearly 
explain, though it appears to have been in a great 
measure spontaneous, the English language, during 
the fifteenth century, rejected a very considerable 
proportion of the French words with which it was 
encumbered, and at the same time dropped an equally 
large quantity of superfluous Anglo-Saxon, which 

d2 



58 ON THE HISTORY OF THE 

now became entirely obsolete, or fell, as I have just 
shown, into our local dialects. The English lan- 
guage was also undergoing another change during 
this period, which we must probably ascribe, in a 
great measure, to the revolution which was taking 
place in the social condition, and to the more active 
movement in commerce and politics. I have told 
you how, in the course of the twelfth century, the 
Anglo-Saxon language underwent an organic change 
in its verbal forms and inflections. Although the 
latter, however, were greatly simplified, and although 
the degradation continued during the thirteenth 
century, they were not entirely lost ; and the English 
language during the fourteenth century possessed a 
perfect grammatical construction, with regular inflec- 
tions, indicating cases and numbers both of nouns 
and adjectives, and of numbers and persons of verbs, 
which are never transgressed in the manuscripts 
except by the mere carelessness of the scribes. These 
inflections, represented chiefly by the final e and en 9 
will be found strictly observed in the language of 
Piers Ploughman in the middle of the fourteenth 
century, and they are no less carefully observed in 
that of Chaucer at the end of that period. It is, in 
fact, through ignorance of the nature of those inflec- 
tions, and of the grammatical system of the English 
language in the fourteenth century, that the editors 
of our ancient poet, from the sixteenth century to 
the nineteenth, have done nothing but make con- 
fusion of his language and ruin the harmony of his 
verse. But immediately after Chaucer wrote, very 
early in the fifteenth century, the grammatical forms 
of the language began to be neglected, and people, 
pronouncing the words apparently more quickly^ 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 59 

first ceased sounding the final e of the inflections, and 
then let it drop altogether. The fifteenth century, 
in fact, was equally a period of transition from the 
condition of our language in the fourteenth century 
to modern English, as the twelfth century had been 
a period of transition from Anglo-Saxon to the Eng- 
lish of the middle period. The invention of printing 
no doubt contributed towards the final purification of 
the English language, and to the settlement of its 
forms. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the 
English language, purged of the superfluous French 
and half-obsolete Anglo-Saxon which had previously 
encumbered it, and with very few grammatical in- 
flections of any kind, assumed a form which prepared 
it for the glories of the Elizabethan period, and the 
language of Shakespeare is so well known, that I feel 
sure that it is unnecessary for me to follow its history 
any further. 

I will, however, briefly point out a new danger to 
which the English language was exposed in the six- 
teenth century. The revival of learning was followed 
in England by an increased activity in scholastic 
education, and by an extraordinary reverence for the 
classical languages of antiquity. This soon assumed 
the character of a fashionable and exaggerated 
pedantry, and people began, both in conversation and 
writing, to interlard their English with Latin words, 
to which they merely gave an English form. In 
fact, as most writers and readers of books were now 
almost as well acquainted with the Latin language 
as with their own, the former began to assume 
towards it very much the same position which Anglo- 
Norman held towards Anglo-Saxon at an earlier 
period, and as each writer introduced into his Eng- 



GO HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 

lish just as many Latin words as he pleased, it might 
have been a question at one time whether the lan- 
guage we were destined finally to speak would not 
have been a sort of mongrel between Latin and Eng- 
lish. This affectation of Latin reached its greatest 
height in an age worthy of it, the reign of James I, 
after which it began rapidly to disappear, and, for- 
tunately, but a very small number of the Latin words 
which had thus been intruded into our language have 
been retained. But in one respect this dragging of 
the English language into an unnatural relationship 
with the Latin language exercised a disastrous in- 
fluence on its future. When men began to study 
the English language, and to seek and treat of its 
grammatical rules, they lay under a prejudice which 
had grown up with the Latinists, and which, unfor- 
tunately, had not died with them, and, forgetting 
that English was a language in itself, they took it 
for granted that its grammar was merely an English 
edition of Latin grammar, and where they found that 
the English forms as they existed did not agree with 
the rules of Latin grammar, they attempted to force 
them into concordance. This mistake has spoilt all 
the English grammars which have been published 
previous to our own days, and, unfortunately, we are 
not yet emancipated from it ; nor shall we be eman- 
cipated until the language of Alfred the Great, and 
that of Piers Ploughman and Chaucer, are more 
generally taught in our higher schools and colleges. 
This is certain, that our grammarians and lexico- 
graphers have, during the last two centuries, been 
labouring in their ignorance to reject from the Eng- 
lish language some of its purest and best phraseology. 




XV. 

ON THE ABACUS, OR MEDIEVAL SYSTEM 
OF ARITHMETIC. 




N the mathematical treatises of the ancients, 
the results of abstruse arithmetical calcu- 
lations are given, without any indication 
of the exact process by which they were 
obtained. The operations of arithmetic taught and 
practised in the schools, being perhaps of a kind not 
easily expressed in writing, have perished with the 
schools themselves. It is self-evident that arith- 
metical operations of any extent could not be per- 
formed with the clumsy notation of the Greek or 
Roman numerals. 

The somewhat varied writings of Boethius, who 
flourished at the beginning of the sixth century, 
were the channel through which chiefly the science 
and philosophy of the ancients passed to the middle 
ages, previous to the introduction of Arabian science 
in the twelfth century. A very obscure passage, at 
the end of the first book of the Geometrica of this 
writer, describes a tabular system of arithmetical 



62 ON THE ABACUS. 

calculation, to which he gives the name of abacus, 
and he states that it was said to have been invented 
by the Pythagoricians, whence it was also called the 
mensa Pythagorica. The first of these names re- 
minds us forcibly of the lines of Persius the satirist, — 

Nee qui abaco numeros et secto in pulvere metas 
Scit risisse vafer. 

But so little has the passage in Boethius been under- 
stood in latter times, that his editors have generally 
substituted a common multiplication table for the 
diagram of the manuscripts. Aldhelm, at the end of 
the seventh century, tells us that he found arithmetic 
the most abstruse and difficult of all the sciences ; 
but, until the time of the celebrated Gerbert (the 
end of the tenth century) we find no direct allusion 
to the mode in which arithmetical operations were 
performed, Gerbert (subsequently raised to the 
papacy as Sylvester II) is generally looked upon as 
the first who introduced the abacus, upon which he 
wrote a brief treatise containing rules, or rather the 
titles of rules, which were almost as obscure as the 
passage of Boethius. William of Malmsbury, in the 
middle of the twelfth century, when the system had 
been perfected, describes them as regulcB quce a sudan- 
tibus abacistis vix intelliguntur. A larger treatise on 
the abacus — that is, on arithmetic — was composed 
by Gerbert's scholar, Bernelinus (probably Bernel- 
mus, or Beornhelm), and from that time to the end 
of the twelfth century, treatises under the same title 
became very common, including one by a celebrated 
mathematician of the end of the eleventh century 
named Gerland. They are of frequent occurrence 
in early manuscripts. A much esteemed and learned 



ON THE ABACUS. 63 

friend of the writer of the present article, M. Chasles* 
(member of the Institute of France, and professor of 
pure geometry at the Ecole Polytechnique), by a 
careful comparison of these different treatises, first 
demonstrated — and that in my opinion to absolute 
conviction — that they all relate to one system of 
arithmetical operations, which was the same as that 
alluded to in the passage of Boethius, and which, in 
fact, was identical in principle with the system in use 
at the present day. 

A monk of St. Remi at Rheims, named Richerius, 
the friend and disciple of Gerbert, has left us a most 
interesting history of his own times, which has been 
published by the German antiquary Pertz ; this 
writer has inserted in his annals an account of the 
chief philosophical instruments of his illustrious 
master. He tells us that Gerbert caused a manu- 
facturer of shields to construct a table, which he 
divided into twenty-seven longitudinal columns, and 
he also caused to be made a thousand characters in 
horn, of the figures of the nine numerical symbols 
(probably square dice thus marked), by means of 
which he was enabled to express all numbers and 
make all calculations.! It appears clear that Ger- 

* In his "Aperqu historique sur Forigine et le developpe- 
ment des methodes en Geometric" I can only refer my 
readers to this book, which I do not possess, and its title does 
not appear in the catalogue of the British Museum library. M. 
Chasles has more recently published and commented upon some 
early treatises on the abacus, in the transactions of the Academie 
des Sciences. 

f Abacum, id est tabulam diraensionibus aptam opere 
scutarii effecit, cujus longitudini, in xxvii. partibus diducta?, 
novem numero notas omnem numerum significantes disposuit. 
Ad quarum etiam similitudinem, mille corneos effecit caracteres, 



64 ON THE ABACUS. 

bert's invention was the machine to apply to a 
system which was already in use, and the obscurity 
of his brief tract on the subject arose from our not 
having the machine to which it was intended to 
refer. Subsequent writers drew the figure of the 
abacus in their books, and from them we learn the 
forms of the characters or symbols made to represent 
the numbers.* 

The object of the abacus machine of Gerbert was, 
by means of its columns, to represent what we now 
call the value of numerals by position. Characters, 
when placed in the first column to the right, repre- 
sented units, and were termed digiti. Those placed 
in the second, third, &c, columns, represented tens, 
hundreds, and so forth, and were called indiscrim- 
inately articuli. On vellum these columns were 
represented by vertical lines. The nine numbers 
were represented by the following apparently arbi- 
trary characters, to which were given the names igln, 
andras, ormis, arbas, quinas, calcus, zenis, temenias, 
and celentis, which seem equally arbitrary. Each 

98 7 6 54 3 21 

Celentis. Teruenias. Zenis. Calcus. Quinas. Arbas. Orruis. Andras. Igin. 

of these characters had a local power, according to 
the column in which it was placed : thus, andras in 

qui per xxvii. abaci partes mutuati, cuj usque numeri multipli- 
cationein sive divisionem designarent, etc. — Bicheri Hist., liber 
iii. c. 54. 

* Manuscripts of Boethius contain the drawing of the abacus, 
with the figures of the characters, as described in the system 
of Gerbert. See a fine manuscript in the British Museum, MS. 
Lansdown, No. 842. 



ON THE ABACUS. 65 

the first column represented 2, in the second 20, in 
the third 200, and so on. Thus the nine characters 
might be made to express all numbers whatever, and 
the processes of arithmetic were performed in what 
appeared a mechanical game — much resembling a 
game at chess or draughts — the results being taken 
and expressed in the ordinary Roman numerals. 
When, however, we consider that most of the pro- 
cesses of calculation, as then employed, were very 
complicated and intricate, and that the operators did 
not call the characters they were working with one, 
two, three, &c. but iff in, andras, ormis, &c. — in fact 
they were continually obliged to translate numbers 
to characters and characters to numbers, as 12 is 
represented by andras in the first column, and igin 
in the second; 372 is represented hy andras in col. 1, 
zenis in col. 2, and ormis in col. 3, — we may easily 
conceive the great confusion which must have been 
created in many people's heads, and understand per- 
fectly why Aldhelm found arithmetic the most 
difficult of all the sciences. 

The above representation of the characters of the 
abacus is copied from an imperfect manuscript of the 
treatise by Gerland, in the British Museum (MS. 
Arundel, No. 343), the book in which the principles 
of the science are most clearly explained. The first 
part of the solution of a very simple question in 
division, with two of the diagrams representing the 
table of the abacus and the method of proceeding, 
taken from this same manuscript, will give the best 
idea of the complicated nature of these operations. 
The question is that of dividing 120 pearls among 
three damsels; and after some introductory explana- 
tion, we are directed to " place the three girls in the 



66 



ON THE ABACUS. 




Fig. 2. 



singular arc [the first column], a hundred pearls in 
the centenal arc, and twenty in the 
decenal, thus " (see Fig. 1). This was 
done by placing ormis in the first 
column for the number of damsels, 
and igin in the third and andras in 
the second for the number of pearls. 
Gerland then goes on to say, " next 
transfer ormis as the divisor, and 
place him in the next arc to the thing 
to be divided, for he is greater than 
igin, and let it be arranged thus 
(Fig. 2). Then say, as many times 
as ormis is into igin, the same is three into ten, thrice 
and remains one. Take therefore the three, and 
place it under the three, and place the one which 
remains, that is igin, beside andras"* And thus it 
goes on, with two other diagrams, before the question 
is solved. 

It was, in fact, a task upon the memory to carry 
in mind the names of the characters ; and we accord- 
ingly find in old manuscripts a great number of 
memorial verses in Latin, composed to assist the 
memory ; two of which, published by Mr. Halliwell, 
in his JRara Mathematica, from manuscripts of the 
fourteenth century, may be given as specimens. 
Sometimes the writer appears himself to have for- 

* Pone tres puellas in singulari arcu, centum margaritas in 
centeno, et xx. in deceno, sic. Postea transfer ormin divisoreni, 
et loca eum in proximo arco pecuniae dividends, nam major est 
quam igin, et sit hujusmodi figura. Confestim die, quoties est 
ormis in igin, idem ternarius in decern, ter et remanet unus : 
sume igitur ternarium, et suppone ternario, et unum qui 
remanet id est igin, pone juxta an dram, etc., and so it goes on. 
—MS. Arundel, 343, fol. 2, vo. 



ON THE ABACUS. 67 

gotten the name of a character, and to have sub- 
stituted another, as in the first of these examples, 
where the sixth is called termas instead of calcus or 
calcis. In this first the names are numerated briefly 
in a distich : — 

Primus igin ; andras ; ormis ; quarto subit arbas ; 
Quinque quinas ; termas ; zenis ; temenias ; celentis. 

The other is rather more detailed : — 

Unus adest igin ; andras duo ; tres reor armin ; 
Quatuor est arbas ; et pro quinque fore quinas ; 
Sex calcis ; septem zenis ; octo temenias ; 
jNovem celentis ; pro deno sunie priorem. 

The system of the abacus appears to have con-, 
tinued in use with little alteration till late in the 
twelfth century. M. Chasles has printed an anony- 
mous treatise from a manuscript of the end of that 
century, which appears to have been composed not 
long previous to that date. Early in the twelfth 
century the knowledge of Arabian science began to 
be introduced into the schools of western Europe, 
and this perhaps exerted some influence in modifying 
it. To simplify the operations of arithmetic, it was 
necessary to get rid of the tabular process, and to 
abolish the embarrassing technicalities. During the 
twelfth century the mathematicians were gradually 
throwing away the columns of the abacus, and giving 
independent value of position to the characters, 
though they had not yet come to regard them as 
numerals. They now found it necessary to denote 
in some manner what in the tabular process was re- 
presented by leaving the place blank ; and they in- 
vented for this purpose a new character, represented 



68 ON THE ABACUS. 

by a circle, to which they gave the name of siphos or 
ciphos. It was not till a later period, when the 
characters had long been regarded as numerical 
figures, that their original names were dropped ; for 
we have seen that memorial verses to enable people 
to remember these names are found in manuscripts 
as late as the fourteenth century ; but in the sequel, 
the name of the siphos, corrupted into cipher, was the 
only one retained. 

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the 
table in columns had entirely disappeared, and we 
then find the name abacus exchanged for that of 
algorismus, which (in English algrim and awgrim) 
was the name commonly given to the science of 
arithmetic until the sixteenth century. One of the 
first treatises on algorismus was by an English scholar 
named Johannes de Sacro-bosco, who is said to have 
died about the year 1235. His system is seen at 
once to be that of the abacus, with the addition of 
the sipos (or, as he calls it, cifra) to enable the 
operator to dispense with the columns. The very 
words of the old writers, which had reference to the 
tabular columns, are retained to denote the position 
of the figures, and the technical terms remind us of 
the columns at every step. The numbers, according 
to their position, are still digiti and articuli* The 
figures are still understood as being characters by 
which number is artificially represented.! Towards 
the middle of the thirteenth century, a well-known 

* Numerorum alius digitus, alius articulus .... Digitus 
quidein dicitur omnis numerus minor denario ; articulus vero 
est omnis numerus qui potest dividi in decern partes aaquales, 
ita quod nihil residuum sit. 

f humeri per figuras competentes artificialis repraesentatio. 



ON THE ABACUS. 



69 



writer, Alexander de Villa-Dei (or Villedieu) com- 
posed memorial verses, not for the names of the 
characters, but comprising the whole system of 
arithmetic, under the title of Carmen de Algorismo, a 
tract which must have been extremely popular, if we 
judge by the number of manuscripts in which it 
occurs.* The abacus, or table, was still retained, 
but without the columns. I think that I have seen 
a drawing in an early manuscript representing a 
person operating on the Boethian abacus, but I have 
mislaid the reference ; representations of the algoris- 
mus table are less rare. In 
the annexed cut, taken 
from a manuscript of the 
end of the thirteenth or 
commencement of the four- 
teenth century (MS. Bur- 
ney, No. 275, p. 667), a 
female, the personification 
of arithmetic, is teaching 
her disciples the science of 
algorismus: — she appears to 
be drawing the figures with a 
styleona table covered with 
wax or some other soft sub- 
stance. Another represen- 
tation of a person working 
on the algorismus table will 
be found in a manuscript of the fourteenth century, in 
the British Museum (MS. Harl. No. 4350, fol. 15, v°.) 
It is now very difficult to say how far the know- 




* This and the treatise of Johannes de Sacro-bosco are both 
printed by Mr. Halliwell in the "Kara Mathematical 



70 ON THE ABACUS. 

ledge of the Arabian system of arithmetic may have 
influenced the changes which were thus taking place 
in our mediaeval system. So much knowledge was 
borrowed from the Saracens during the twelfth 
century , that it became the fashion to ascribe to them 
the origin of many things which were known long 
before the intercourse which led to the introduction 
amongst our forefathers of the Arabian sciences. 
William of Malmsbury, in the middle of the twelfth 
century, supposed that Gerbert had obtained the 
knowledge of the abacus from the Spanish Arabs ; a 
notion which was, certainly, without foundation. 
The writer of the anonymous treatise on the abacus, 
of the end of the twelfth century, printed by M. 
Chasles, goes so far as to assert that the name abacus 
is an Arabic word.* Alexander de Villa-Dei, and 
other writers of the thirteenth and subsequent cen- 
turies, imagined that the characters used in the 
system of algorismus were derived from the Arabs 
and the Indians; and hence they have eventually 
obtained the title of Arabic numerals. A single 
glance, however, is sufficient to show that the figures 
of the algorismus are identical in every respect with 
the characters of the abacus, having merely passed 
through modifications inevitable when they came 
into more frequent use. For the sake of comparison, 
I give three specimens of arithmetical numerals, of 
different dates. No 1 is taken from the earliest 
manuscript of the treatise of Sacro-bosco that I have 
been able to find in the British Museum (MS. 
Arundel, No. 332, fol. 68, ro.), written in the latter 

* Ars ista vocatur abacus : hoc nomen vero Arabicum est, et 
son at raeiisa. 



ON THE ABACUS. 71 

part of the thirteenth century. No. 2 is taken from 
another copy of the same work (MS. Eeg. 8, C. iv. 
fol. 36, vo.), written in the earlier part of the four- 

3 $%>%&& 'tf&3 2A 

teenth century. No. 3 is taken from a calendar of 
the earlier half of the fifteenth century (MS. Sloane, 
No. 2927). It may be observed that in a manuscript 
calendar in the Cottonian library (Vespas. E. vn), 
which appears to have been written in the year 1380, 
the forms of the numerical figures are nearly identical 
with those of No, 3. We see, by these examples, 
how our modern numerals were derived from the 
characters of the abacus. Several of them have 
hardly been changed. It is probable that andras 
was a mere horizontal line, with a vertical curved 
line under it ; the 2 of the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries was a horizontal line with vertical line 
below, which latter took gradually a curling form, 
and later on in the fourteenth century the position of 
the figure was reversed. Ormis is at once identified 
with the figure 3. Arbas was rather more com- 
plicated in its form, and has, consequently, gone 
through a greater change to make it convenient for 
writing rapidly : it may, however, still be easily 
identified ; the common form of the figure 4 during 
the fifteenth century was R, to which, after the in- 
vention of printing, a more angular shape was given. 



72 ON THE ABACUS. 

Quinas is found in some manuscripts in a reversed 
position ; — from either the transition to the 5 is easy- 
enough. The similitude between calcus and 6 need 
hardly be pointed out. Zenis is also frequently re- 
versed ; both limbs are sometimes of the same length, 
which was the case in the form of the 7 in the 
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries ; during 
the latter century, the common form of the 7 was /\. 
Celentis has only to be reversed to become 9. The 
siphos was represented, as in No. 2, by a circle with 
a line across, and seems, from the words of Sacro- 
bosco,* to have been intended for a Greek 9. 

It is important, in various respects, for the anti- 
quary thus to know historically the origin and transfor- 
mation of the mediaeval numerals. Various instances 
occur of inscriptions on buildings in the so-called 
Arabic numerals, apparently of an early date, which 
have been severally the subject of obstinate discus- 
sion, simply because both disputants were equally 
ignorant of v the subject they were discussing. Such 
an inscription has been ascribed even to the eleventh 
century. This, it will at once be seen, is impossible, 
and the error has probably arisen from taking a 4 of 
the fifteenth century, of which the lower limbs had 
been nearly erased, for a 0. Even in the twelfth 
century, these characters were no more looked upon 
as numerals, than our modern algebraical a, b, c, and 
x, y, z ; none but a mathematician knew what they 
meant ; and if he had seen a date on a building ex- 
pressed in such figures, he would probably have 
wondered for what magical purpose four characters 

* Decima figura dicitur theta, vel nihil significat, sed locum 
tenens dat circulus, vel cifra, vel figura nihili quia aliis sig- 
nificare. 



ON THE ABACUS. 73 

of the abacus had been stuck up against the wall. 
Both in the treatises on the abacus, and in those on 
the algorismus, down to a late period, the figures are 
only used in the operations, the results of which are 
stated in words or in Roman numerals. The former 
were considered as things only belonging to science. 
Charpentier, in his supplement to the Glossarium of 
Ducange, cites a document, of which he does not 
give the date (but it was probably of the thirteenth 
century), in which books that appear to have been 
marked with these figures are distinguished as libri 
signati per abacum* Even at the end of the four- 
teenth century, the figures were still considered as 
signs belonging to the science of " awgrim ;" a passage 
in the curious poem on the deposition of Richard II. 
informs us that, — 

Than satte sunime, 
As siphre doth in awgrym, 
That noteth a place 
And nothing availeth. 

It was only in the fourteenth century that these 
algorismic numerals became generally used in books, 
and it is not probable that they would be used in in- 
scriptions on buildings till long afterwards ; it will 
be evident that they could not possibly be so used in 
the twelfth century, and I believe it to have been 
equally impossible in the thirteenth. Rare examples 
of inscriptions in these figures occur in the fifteenth ; 
but even in the sixteenth, as it is well known, the 
prejudice was strongly in favour of the Roman nu- 
merals. 

* Hinc libri signati per abacum in Stat. Mant. forte sunt 
codices notis numericis per singulas paginas signati. 
II. E 




XVI. 

ON THE ANTIQUITY OP DATES EXPRESSED 
IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 




N the preceding paper on the Abacus, I have 
remarked, that the use of the so-called 
Arabic numerals in manuscripts was not 
general, except in books of science, till 
ate in the fourteenth century, and that they had not 
been found in inscriptions, in this country, before the 
fifteenth century. It will be useful as well as in- 
teresting to trace the history of such inscriptions, and 
to give a few examples of the forms of the figures, 
which will serve as a point of comparison for the 
researches of those who may have discovered such 
inscriptions, of which the age or reading is doubtful. 
Dates in manuscripts, written in these numerals, 
are of great rarity, until so late as the end of the 
fifteenth century. David Castley, in the plates to 
his catalogue of the Royal Library, has given two or 
three examples, among a great number of dates ex- 
pressed in Roman numerals. The earliest he had 
met with, is found in a Cottonian manuscript ( Yespas. 
A. Ii), and it is necessary to observe that this is in a 



ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES, ETC. 75 

work on astronomical science : the words are, Anno 
Domini 1292, factus ad meridiem civitatis Tholeti. 
The manuscript, moreover, appears on reference to 
have been written at a later period than this date. 
In a manuscript in the Royal Library (2 C. v.) we 
find the date 1334, written by a scholar and, pro- 
bably, a man of science. The next known date in 
these numerals, in a manuscript in the same collec- 
tion (2 B. vin), is attached to a calendar compiled 
by an astronomer of Oxford, in the year 1380. These 
are all connected with men of science. The next date 
known to Castley, also occurs in one of the royal 
manuscripts (6 D. n), and is of the year 1467. Cast- 
ley gives after this the dates 1488 (in MS. Reg. 14 
C. vn), 1497 (in MS. Ueg. 6 A. vin), and 1508 (in 
MS. Reg. 2 B. xm). 

It is evident, therefore, that until the fifteenth cen- 
tury the knowledge of these numerals was confined 
almost entirely to mathematicians, or arithmeticians, 
and that even at the end of the fourteenth century 
they were not in general use. This is confirmed by a 
curious passage of Chaucer's poem, commonly called 
in the old editions The Dream of Chaucer, but of which 
the more correct title appears to be The Boke of the 
Duchess : the poet, describing his dream, says : — 

" Shortly, it was so full of beasts, 
That though Argus, the noble countour, 
Sate to reckon in his countour, 
And reckon with his figures ten, 
For by tho figures newe all ken, 
If they be craftie, recken and number, 
Yet should he faile to recken even 
The wonders me met in my sweven." 

The " new figures " are here distinctly mentioned as 
being used only by the " countour," or arithmetician : 



76 



ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES 



and the second countour is perhaps merely the popular 
name for the abacus, or table on which the arithme- 
tician worked. I think none of Chaucer's commen- 
tators knew who this Argus was : Algus, or Argus, 
by some called a philosopher, by others a king of 
Castile, was the legendary inventor of arithmetic, 
which it was pretended took from him the name of 
algorismus. * 

The earliest authentic date that has, as far as I can 
learn, been yet discovered in England, carries us no 

farther back than the 
year 1445. It was kindly 
communicated to me by 
Mr. M. A. Lower, of 
Lewes, from whose rub- 
bing the accompanying 
cut is carefully reduced. 
This date, as Mr. Lower 
informs me, appears on a 
stone in the interior of 
No. 1. the tower of Heathfield 

church, Sussex; the surface of the stone is much 
corroded by natural causes, and it has suffered still 
further from the vandalism of a blacksmith, who, 
while employed in repairing the bells, defaced it in 
part with a pick-axe ; but it is still sufficiently dis- 
tinct to leave no doubt of the date. Gr. S. are pro- 

* Hanc igitur scientiam...edidit philosophus nomine Algus, 
unde Algorismus nuncupatur. — Jo. de Sacro-Bosco, de Arte 
Numerandi. Ab Algore rege quondam Castellise s'uo in Algo- 
rismo. — Johannes Norfolk, in Artem Progressions summula. L 
and r were constantly interchanged in the languages of the 
middle ages, especially in French and English. In the Image 
du Monde we have, — 

" En argorisme devon prendre," &c. 




1 xxf 




EXPRESSED IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 77 

bably the initials of a person who built or repaired 
the tower in 1445. Until lately the people of the 
neighbourhood imagined that this date was 1004 ! 

Gough, in his Funeral Monuments, has given a 
plate of early dates in arithmetical figures, whch con- 
tains a number of very good examples. The oldest 
with which he was acquainted was that of 1454, found 
on a brass in Ware church. 

Our next cut, No. 2, the drawing of which was given 
me by Mr. J. G. Waller, represents 
part of a date on a brass in Thornton 
church, Bucks, of the year 1472. It 
affords a curious instance of a date ex- 
pressed partly in words and partly in 

arithmetical figures : the whole in- „ n 

. . , & , , . No. 2. 

scnption on the brass being : — 

grmicer ecce yiuis facet fric tenure ftofcertus 
3fng2lton t tiommus tie ^orneton jure patronus, 
3[n quinto Tiecimo moriens ©ctobrte sib oibe 
3D celos transit, mille C quater £ac 72 sirrwi atitie* 
£>it sibi propicia celi regina JSlaria et 
S>altoet eum ££rijetu0 matritf amore tieus* 

The 7 is a good example of the ordinary form of that 
figure in the fifteeenth century. It occurs again 
(No. 3) in the date 1487, in an inscription, for a 
rubbing of which I am in- 
debted to Mr. Goddard 
Johnson of Norwich. It 
is carved on a wooden 
door at Arminghall, the 
interesting remains of an No# 3 ' 

ancient building about four miles from Norwich, an 
engraving of which is given in Cotman's Antiquities. 
This house is considered to be one of the hospitia, or 



USA 



78 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES 

houses for the gratuitous entertainment of travellers, 
said to have been common in every county in England 
before the Reformation. The inscription, which runs 
across the door and is not very legible, appears to be, 

SDrate pro anima jftlactw WLilli ♦ ♦ ♦ qui fecit fieri £oc ostium, 
A x 1 1487* 

The cut No. 4, for the drawing of which I am also 
*. j^ y^ a indebted to Mr. Waller, repre- 
I \f ^? / sents the date 1489, on a brass 
H ^x £s f ' m ^ e cnurcn °f Allhallows 
^r ^ Barking, near the Tower, Lon- 
No * 4 * don, and is somewhat remark- 

able for the angular forms of the figures. The in- 
scription on the brass is : — 

$ic iacent ®f>oma0 Gilbert, quontiam ctoi0 et pamtariu0 Hon* 
Hon* ac mercator stapuie trille ^Talisie, et acnes ujcor tius nuper 
uxor lof)amu0 £>auntier0 cit)i0 et pannarii citoitati0 preUicte et 
mercatoris Stapule toille Calisie, qui quitiam ^omas obijt 
xxvij nie 9lprilt0 anno Domini m cccc° lxxxiij. , et preUicta 
Scnes obiit xiij° tiie tTebruarii a U* 1489 

The same date is found in arithmetical figures in an 
inscription in bishop King's chapel, Windsor, which 
is engraved in Funeral Monuments. 

Our next example (No. 
5) is the celebrated Col- 
chester inscription, of the 
date 1490, which has been 
the object of so much dis- 
cussion, and has by some 
been very absurdly taken 
for a genuine inscription of 
the date 1090. The shape 
of the shield, which is that 
No. 5. ™ common at the end of the 




EXPRESSED IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 



79 



fifteenth century, ought to have deterred any one 
from forming such an opinion. Our cut is taken 
from a very faithful drawing, communicated by Mr. 
Sprague of Colchester, who observes, " upon exami- 
nation, I found the shield had from time to time been 
repaired and patched, particularly at the base and 
dexter side ; the bouche was entirely filled with putty, 
which I have removed, and which accounts for its 
not appearing in the engraving given in Cromwell's 
Colchester." It is carved on the sill of a window. 
The lower part of the 4 has been long defaced ; but 
the general form of the figures is that of the large 
formal writing in the church service books of the 
latter part of the fifteenth century. 

The next example that has occurred to me is re- 
presented in the cut 
No. 6. It is carved 
on a stone in the 
tower of Hadley 
church, Middlesex, 
and represents the 
date 1494. In a 
pane of glass in one 
of the windows of 
the hospital of St. Cross, we have the date 1499 in 
arithmetical figures, of a rather interesting form; 
they are engraved in Gough. 

The reduced fac-simile of a date on a brass in St. 
Mary's Coslany church, Norwich (No. 7), was kindly 
sent me by the very rev. F. C. 
Husenbeth, of Cossey, who be- 
lieved it to be 1507. Others have 
supposed it to be 1502. I am 
inclined to think the last figure jj 0# 7. 




No. 6. 



iftot 



80 



ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES 



has been a 4, or a 0, now defaced in part. The form 
of the letters bears a general resemblance to those of 
the Colchester date. The 5 is the usual form of that 
figure in manuscripts of this period. In the entire 
inscription on this brass we have again an instance 
of the curious mixture of the usage of Roman nu- 
merals and arithmetical figures, which shows how 
slowly the latter came into general use : — 

SSDrate pro anima Domini EoBerti i£la#o, quonHam I?uju0 ec* 
cleme capellam parocln qui oBiit xxvij "Die gits* 1 a x* 150 — . 

It is curious to observe how, even at this late 
period, the original forms of the figures are tradi- 
tionally preserved in the inscriptions, amid the changes 

which had followed 





the progress of the 
art of printing. In 
manuscripts of the 
beginning of the six- 
teenth century, as in 
the date 1508 given 
by Castley in his 
plate xvi, the cipher 
has a line drawn 
across it, which ap- 
pears to have been 
its original form, al- 
though partially lost during many years. In making 
some repairs at London Bridge, in the year 1758, a 
stone was found with an inscription of which the cut 
(No. 8) is a facsimile, with the date Anno Domini 
1509. The cipher has here similarly a line drawn 
across. The form of the 5, in this inscription, is 
also very curious, though I believe that other ex- 
amples of it are found. 



No. 8. 



EXPRESSED IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 81 

During the whole of the sixteenth century, in in- 
scriptions, the 5 took different forms, resembling more 
or less the same figure as commonly written in France 
at the present day, and in many instances it is easily 
mistaken for a 1, particularly in inscriptions of the 
middle and latter half of the century. The cut, 
No. 9, taken from a drawing given me by Mr. Wal- 
ler, represents the date 1526, on a painted glass 
window in South Mimms church, Middlesex. The 
next example (No. 10), also furnished me by Mr. 



m 




No. 9. No. 10. 

Waller, is the date 1537, carved on a wooden seat in 
Aldham church, Suffolk. The forms of the figures 
in both these examples are rather unusual ; in the 
last, the 7, compared with the same figure, in our 
dates, Nos. 2 and 3, shows distinctly the manner 
in which the modern form originated from the old 
one. A 7, written nearly like this, is found in the 
date 1497, in the manuscript cited by Castley (MS. 
Eeg. 6 A viii). 

The peculiar forms of the 5 in the sixteenth cen- 
tury were the source of most of the disputed inter- 
pretations of dates in arithmetical numerals, supposed 
to be older than the fifteenth century. The old form 
of the 4, sometimes mutilated, taken for a cipher, 
gave rise to the belief in such inscriptions being of the 
eleventh century. The 5, interpreted, sometimes as a 
E 2 




82 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES 

1, made dates of the twelfth century; sometimes, inter- 
preted as a 2, it made dates of the thirteenth century ; 
and lastly, taken for a 3, it furnished dates supposed 
to be of the fourteenth century. We begin with an 
example of the date 1552 (No. 11), carved on a 

wooden beam at the Half- 
moon inn, near Magdalen 
College, Cambridge, the 
true interpretation of which 
cannot admit of a doubt; 
yet few dates have been 
the object of more discussion, and several learned 
men have persisted in reading it as 1332, and giving 
that erroneous date to the timber-house in which it was 
found. The next (No. 12), of the date of 1582, is 

from Walling, near Alder- 
maston, in Berkshire ; the 
5, here, is not very easy to 
be distinguished from a 1. 

No. 12. . & 

The third example (No. 

13), is of the date 1592, 

cut on a beam in Ashford 

church; it also has been 

the subject of some discus- 
No. 13. J 

sion, one party assertmg 

that it represents 1292. It may be well to observe, 
that I have copied the three last examples from the 
plate in Gough. Instances of these dates of the fif- 
teenth century being taken for the twelfth, thirteenth, 
and fourteenth centuries, are not uncommon in dif- 
ferent parts of England. Mr. Lower has pointed 
out to me three in Sussex alone, — " there are dates," 
he says, " at Mayfield palace, and at Selmeston 
church, which have been stated to be of the four- 




UPS 



EXPRESSED IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 83 

teenth century, in consequence of the 5 having been 
mistaken for a 3 ; and at Dalehurst there is another, 
which is doubtless of the sixteenth century, but which 
from the peculiar form of the five has been assigned 
to the twelfth." In Kent there are several examples 
of dates similarly mistaken. One of these has been 
the subject of much discussion — the ancient date for- 
merly on the Oast House, and still preserved at 
Preston Hall in Aylesford. In a note from the Rev. 
Lambert B. Larking, of Kyarsh, I am informed that 
" it stands most clearly and decidedly e 1 102.' Hasted 
enters fully into the discussion, but leaves the ques- 
tion just where it was, and, after all, I can do little 
more. The fact is as he represents it to be. The 
figures are clearly meant to represent 1102, and 
nothing else, and it is equally clear that they were 
cut in the sixteenth century. The very forms of the 
letters declare it — the whole building is indisputably 
work of Elizabeth's time — of this there cannot be a 
doubt. A false date, then, was put up, whether in- 
tentionally or by mistake must remain matter of con- 
jecture. It has always struck me that the whole was 
a blunder of the stone-cutter. In manuscripts of 
the sixteenth century, you well know how difficult it 
often is to distinguish between 5 and 1, especially 
when they are hastily written, as the correspondence 
of that day abundantly proves. In France, to this 
day, the same resemblance continues, and I should 
desire no better illustration of our argument than the 
first hotel bill which the traveller meets with on his 
arrival. When first put into his hand, he flatters 
himself that he has been feasting cheaply, but on 
payment of his bill, he finds all his units turned into 
5's, and there ends his dream. My own early prac- 



84 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES 

tical experience of this inconvenience, led me, many- 
years ago, to account for this disputed date by sup- 
posing that Mr. Colepeper had written the order for 
his stonemason to cut the inscription 1502, and he, 
misreading it, cut ( 1102.' This was always from the 
first my interpretation of it ; and a few years ago I 
was gratified at finding somewhat of a confirmation 
of my view among the muniments of the Colepeper 
family. It appears by the purchase-deed, 1505, that 
Edward Culpeper purchased the manor of Preston in 
that year. The first contract for purchase may have 
been made in 1502, and so fixed the date to that year. 
The Colepepers were evidently seated at Aylesford, 
and had considerable station and influence there, long 
before 1502, as I have abundant evidence from very 
early rolls; so that the purchase appearing to be 
comparatively much more modern than the Con- 
queror's days, (to which the family have been in the 
habit of ascribing the date of their planting them- 
selves at Preston), need not at all deteriorate from 
their antiquarian glories — it merely refers to the 
possession of Preston — not to their other and probably 
larger possessions at Aylesford — for Preston in itself 
is a very small thing. Your paper on numerals in 
the last Journal has so strongly suggested the ease 
with which blunders may be made in reading dates, 
that I have taken a fresh start in this inquiry, and, 
quitting some of my old positions, I am led to ask 
whether the order was not to cut 1582. If it had 
been e 1502,' the initials accompanying the date, in 
strict correctness, should have been E. c, as proved 
by the charter cited above. But in 1582 the estate 
was owned by Thomas Colepeper, and T. c. are the 
initials which do accompany the date on the build- 



EXPRESSED IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 85 

ings. He came into possession in 1571, and I find 
no Colepeper in the pedigree (at all events from 
Henry IV downwards) who bore T for his initial." 
There is another date, of the 16 th century, over the 
door of Ightham Court Lodge, the ancient seat of 
the James family, with a palpable 5 unmistakeable, 
but which has been taken for a 1.* 



After this was written, I received from the Rev. 
C. W. Bingham, of Bingham's Melcombe, near Bland- 
ford, facsimiles of several early dates in the so-called 
Arabic numerals, on buildings in the county of Dor- 
set. The earliest of these is the date of 1487, cut in 
free-stone in the belfry-door of the church of Piddle- 
trenthide : — " It is remarkably little injured by time 
or other causes. The whole inscription is as follows, 
in Roman letters : — 

Est pydeltrenth' villa in dorsedie « f%k f% A 
comitatu nastitur in ilia qua rexit M &J Wm ^^L. 
vicariatu. ^W#Cr <AJ# ^ 



* Mr. T. Crofton Croker pointed out to me a curious instance 
of a mistake in a date inscribed in the Roman numerals. In 
Smith's "History of Cork" (Ireland), it is stated that, "In 
throwing down some of the old walls of Castle-lehan (now called 
Castle Lyons), a chimney-piece was discovered with this in- 
scription, iiEHANO-cuiiLANB hoc fecit Menu, which," adds Dr. 
Smith, " shews that stone buildings were much earlier in Ire- 
land than our modern antiquaries allow them to have been." 
Mr. Croker observes : " This antiquarian blunder has been re- 
peated over and over again as an argument. I went, in conse- 
quence, some twenty years ago, to look at the place, and how- 
ever the mistake may have originated, made up my mind that 
1504, or even 64, must have been the date of the chimney- 



86 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF DATES 

The first word is scarcely legible. You will find it 
engraved in Hutchins's Dorset, 1st edit. vol. ii. 
p. 483; and if for f nastitur' we read 'nascitur,' we 
may suppose that, as there suggested, it is a memo- 
rial of Nicholas Locke, who was vicar from 1467 to 
1494." 

\ f°\f*i +\ Cm a shield in the hall of Milton 
1 VnR Abbey, is the date 1498 :— " In the 
abbey church at Milton there is a 
stone, on which, in relief, there is a W. with a crosier 
and a mill and ton (the device of Wm. Middleton, 
abbot from 1481 to 1525), with the following date 
beneath it: — 



VAX 



This I presume to be 1514. On the neighbouring 
church of Hilton there is a stone built into the wall 
(with two large cursive letters, H. W., forming in 
another stone a part of the same inscription), inscribed 
with a date evidently intended for 1569, although the 
5 is of an unusual form. There was," Mr. Bing- 
ham observes, "a Henry Williams, lessee of this 
manor, tern. Eliz., whose father died 1559, and his 
elder brother 1568, but of his own death I can find 
no date." 

It is important to register as many of these early 
dates as we can discover ; all yet found confirm the 
opinion that the arithmetical figures did not begin to 

piece. It was probably given in Roman numerals, the d being 
reversed, and of the four hit, one being most probably the 
down-stroke of the c, as the Irish philomaths term such forms ; 
so that the real reading would be 1503. But, alas for Irish 
dates ! all this is conjecture, as the chimney-piece in question 
has been broken up to make a road." 



EXPRESSED IN ARABIC NUMERALS. 87 

be in general use for inscriptions in this country till 
towards the end of the fifteenth century. 

Monsieur Chasles communicated to me a cast of a 
date on a stone in the upper part of the tower of 
Chartres cathedral, which is to be read apparently 
1154; but the forms of the figures are evidently 
much more modern than that date. 



UM 




XVII. 

REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET OF THE 

BEGINNING OF THE FOURTEENTH 

CENTURY. 




T is hardly necessary to speak to our 
readers of the value to the archaeologist 
of ancient pictorial representations. They 
tell us what we could not learn from 
other records ; they do more than written descrip- 
tions, — they place the people of past ages before our 
eyes, in actual life, — and they introduce us to those 
minutiae of manners and sentiment which all other 
classes of historical monuments omit. How much 
light has been thrown on the manners of the Etrus- 
cans and Greeks at a very remote period by the 
beautiful pictures on their pottery ! And how little 
should we know of ancient Egypt without the scenes 
which its people caused to be painted on their temples 
and tombs. So it is with Europe during that long 
and interesting period known as the middle ages, 
which has left us a mass of pictorial monuments, 
more numerous, and more varied in character, than 
those of Rome, Greece, or Egypt. As these pic- 



EEMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET, ETC. 89 

tures are attached to various classes of articles, which 
were appropriate to different ranks, professions, ages, 
or sexes, we are enabled to arrange the subjects and 
study them in those classes so as to make ourselves 
familiar, in some degree, with the peculiar senti- 
ments and pursuits of each. 

In the earlier times of the middle ages the fine arts 
were to a great extent monopolized by the clergy, and 
applied chiefly to sacred purposes. For some centuries, 
even in miniatures, comparatively few manuscripts 
were illuminated except Bibles, and Psalters, and Ser- 
vice-books, which are valuable chiefly as illustrations 
of Christian iconology. Until the thirteenth century, 
that class of illuminated manuscripts still predomi- 
nated. The period last mentioned, — the thirteenth 
century, — witnessed a great development of the in- 
telligence of the middle ages, the effects of which 
spread through all classes of society, and which was 
particularly visible in the new classes of subjects on 
which the artist exercised his talents. It was about 
this time that the sculptured seats came into vogue, 
by which the carver introduced into the churches 
those burlesque pictures which illustrated the occu- 
pations of every-day life. In the thirteenth century, 
the illuminators, or painters, worked no longer for the 
church alone. They painted walls for princes and 
nobles, and they illuminated manuscripts on a great 
variety of subjects for the use of knights and ladies. 
The subjects which had at this period most interest 
for the higher ranks of society, and more especially 
for the ladies, were the various incidents of that ex- 
tensive class of literature — the mediaeval romances. 
These we shall trace on a variety of domestic articles 
of this period appropriated to the use of the female 



90 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

members of the baronial household, carved in ivory, 
or wood, or other material ; and they appear more 
especially on those curious and elegant caskets which 
are by no means uncommon in great collections of 
mediaeval antiquities, and of which we had the oppor- 
tunity of examining a very remarkable specimen, then 
in the possession of the late Mr. Seth W. Steven- 
son, F.S.A., of Norwich. It is distinguished by the 
beautiful style of its execution; and the character 
of the workmanship, the costume of the figures, and 
other circumstances, lead us to ascribe it to a date 
not later than the earlier part of the fourteenth cen- 
tury. The part of it which first and chiefly attracts 
attention is its pictorial embellishments, and to this 
I intend to confine my remarks. 

The particular description of these pictures will 
be rendered more intelligible and popular by a 
few general remarks on the class of literature to 
which they relate. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary 
to remind the reader, that the word romance, the 
meaning of which is now restricted to works of fic- 
tion, referred originally to the language only in which 
they were written. Lingua Romana, the Roman 
tongue, was the name which, in the middle ages, 
was applied to all the languages which were derived 
directly from the Latin, such as French, Anglo- 
Norman, Italian, Provencal, or Spanish. A romans 
(Romanus liber) was a book written in any one of 
these languages, and as during this period they were 
used chiefly in writing those peculiar compositions 
which we are still in the habit of calling romances, it 
became common to quote for authorities in such com- 
positions the romans, or book written in the Roman 
language, until the word, at a much later period than 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 91 

that of which we are more especially treating of, 
began to be taken in its present signification, and in 
which I shall always use it in the course of the fol- 
lowing observations. 

The subjects of the mediaeval romances were de- 
rived from various distinct sources. Some were 
taken from the old traditions of the people among 
whom they were composed, and these form perhaps 
the largest and most important class ; they are cer- 
tainly the earliest in the date of their formation. 
Two large and very important cycles ran through the 
neo-latin or romane languages, and were afterwards 
transferred to German, English, and other tongues. 
One of these, grouped round the kings of the Carlo- 
vingian race, was peculiar to the Franks, and its various 
romances were generally known under the title of chan- 
sons de geste, the meaning of which is perhaps best 
rendered in modern English by the term historical 
romances ; the other cycle has for its heroes the sup- 
posed British king Arthur and his knights. The first 
of these cycles, which is exceedingly voluminous, 
having its scene at a period the events of which be- 
longed to comparatively true history, had far less of 
the marvellous in its construction, and was almost 
entirely occupied with the description of warlike ex- 
peditions. The story of the expedition into Spain, and 
the disaster of Roncesvaux, appears to have been the 
only fragment of it ever popular in England. The 
cycle of king Arthur, which was, from its subject, 
much more English, having a foundation which par- 
took far more of the really mythic character, was 
devoted almost entirely to scenes of love and gal- 
lantry, — the chivalry of the chamber and the tourna- 
ment. 



92 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

As the influence of these compositions became 
more general and extensive, the composers began to 
aim at variety, and then they sought foreign subjects, 
and scrupled not to borrow them from ancient, and 
even from Scripture, history. Thus we have the 
romance of Alexander, the romance of Troy, the 
romance of Jason, that of Eneas, and a multitude of 
similar subjects. Gradually the writers became more 
inventive, and then we find allegorical and mystical 
romances, a class of which the grand type was the 
famous Romance of the Rose, in which the progress 
of the soft passion was allegorized in a manner the 
most original and extraordinary. 

From the twelfth to the sixteenth century the lite- 
rature of the ladies was especially and universally one 
of love and gallantry, and of this the casket under our 
consideration, as certainly designed for a lady's use, 
is a very interesting example. History shows us, on 
one hand, how essentially the subjects engraved on it 
were congenial to the education of the fair sex during 
the middle ages, and, on the other hand, how much 
influence they exerted on its morals and fate. I will 
endeavour to illustrate this by the description of the 
subjects themselves, and I shall take them rather in 
the order indicated by the history of romantic lite- 
rature, than in that in which they appear on the 
casket. 

There were two very remarkable branches of the 
romantic cycle of king Arthur, which enjoyed an 
extraordinary popularity during the middle ages ; one 
related the love adventures of Lancelot and Arthur's 
frail queen, Gruenevra, — the other, those of Tristan 
and the fair Isoude, the queen of king Mark of Corn- 
wall. It was the passion pour tray ed under its dif- 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 93 

ferent causes and circumstances; in one case influenced 
by the personal accomplishments and temperament of 
the individuals ; in the other, by a power the belief 
in which formed a portion of the superstitions of the 
western people before their conversion to Chris- 
tianity , and which still weighed heavy upon their 
faith — that of fate. Most of our readers will know the 
story of Tristan : he was sent over to Ireland to fetch 
home Mark's betrothed queen, Isoude, who brought 
with her an enchanted potion which she was to drink 
with her husband, and which had the virtue of 
creating an everlasting love between the persons 
who first pledged each other in it ; by a fatal error, 
the lady and Tristan drank the potion in their pas- 
sage from Ireland, and, although she became king 
Mark's wife, her love had thus been irrevocably dis- 
posed of. 

There is an incident in the romance of Lancelot 
which appears to have had so peculiar an attraction 
for the romance readers of the thirteenth century, 
that one of the celebrated poets of that period, Chres- 
tien de Troyes, made it the subject of a separate 
poem, entitled La Charette, or The Cart. A " felon" 
king, Brandemagus, had carried away queen Gue- 
nevra as his prisoner ; and her lover, Lancelot, who 
arrived at court too late to defend her, set out in her 
pursuit. An accident deprived him of the use of his 
horse, and in his distress he asked for information of 
a deformed dwarf, who was leading a cart, and who 
assured him that he knew which way the queen had 
gone, and engaged, if he would ride in his cart, to 
carry him to his mistress. It appears that, at this 
time, none but condemned criminals ever rode in 
carts, or, at least, those who had become subjected to 



94 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

some terrible disgrace,* and it was only his extreme 
eagerness to overtake the queen which induced 
Lancelot reluctantly to accept the dwarf's offer. On 
his road he was met by Gawayne, who was highly 
scandalized at his friend's position, but they con- 
tinued their route together until they came to the 
castle of a lady, who came out with her damsels to 
receive Gawayne with honours, while Lancelot was 
hissed and pelted by the menials. Through the in- 
tercession of Gawayne, who explained his friend's 
situation, the lady was, with great difficulty, induced 
to extend her hospitality to Lancelot, who, after all, 
was treated with the utmost disrespect. Next morn- 
ing, Lancelot having been furnished with a horse and 
spear, he set out with Gawayne, and finding two 
roads which led to the castle of Gaihon, in Brande- 
magus's kingdom of Goire, whither they knew that 
monarch was conveying his captive, they separated 
in order that each should take a different path. After 
meeting; with several disagreeable adventures, most 
of them arising from his untoward journey in the cart, 
Lancelot at length came to a wide river, which he 
was obliged to pass by means of a bridge formed of 
an immense and sharp-edged sword. Having reached 
the other side in safety, he perceived a (i vilain " ap- 
proaching, who led two lions, with which he was 
compelled to fight ;f but finding that his strokes pro- 

* A celui temps estoit si laide chose de carete, que nus ne 
seist dedens que toutes lois et toutes honors n'eust perdues ; et 
quant on voloit un homme tolir honor, si le faisoit-on monter 
en une charrette, et pus le faisoit-on mener par la vile, et j 
estoit tant que de tous estoit veus, ne ja, en nulle vile tant fust 
grans ne jeust c'une nuit. — Romance of Lancelot, Brit. MS. 
Addit. No. 10,293, fol. 182, v°. 

■j" Quant il vint a terre, il s'est assis a chevauchons, et sache 



OP THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 95 

duced no effect, he drew forth the ring which had 
been given him by the lady of the lake, and then his 
opponents disappeared, and he learnt that it was all 
enchantment. After this he reached the object of 
his search ; but the adventure of the cart, which was 
known also to Guenevra, produced a quarrel and tem- 
porary separation between the queen and her lover. 

The incidents of this story will easily be recog- 
nized in the four compartments of the back of the 
casket, here numbered from 9 to 12. No. 11 is evi- 
dently intended to represent Lancelot in the cart; 
perhaps the lion's head was introduced by a mistake 
of the carver, who ought to have introduced here the 
dwarf. No. 12, perhaps, represents the lady of the 
castle and her damsels, looking on Lancelot and his 
cart with feelings of shame. In No. 10, he is passing 
the strange and perilous bridge ; and No. 9 represents 
his encounter with the lions. Some attributes in 
these figures are not easily explained from the ro- 
mance, and they may have been taken from another 
version of it. Perhaps the spears and sword-blades 
issuing from the clouds are intended to indicate that 
it is all the work of enchantment. 

We thus see that the romance of Lancelot (which, 
I may observe, was the foundation of the later romance 
of the Mort Arthur), has its representative on our 
casket. We shall find the other grand love romance, 
that of Tristan, figuring there too. 

In the course of their adventures the two lovers 
had given each other a rendezvous by night under a 
tree in king Mark's orchard. The king, informed of 

l'espee, et met l'escu par devant son vis, et apele les lyons qui 
ja estoient descayne, et il acorent, si li rendent grant assaut. — 
Lancelot, ib. fol. 196, v°. 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 95 

duced no effect, he drew forth the ring which had 
been given him by the lady of the lake, and then his 
opponents disappeared, and he learnt that it was all 
enchantment. After this he reached the object of 
his search ; bnt the adventure of the cart, which was 
known also to Guenevra, produced a quarrel and tem- 
porary separation between the queen and her lover. 

The incidents of this story will easily be recog- 
nized in the four compartments of the back of the 
casket, here numbered from 9 to 12. No. 11 is evi- 
dently intended to represent Lancelot in the cart ; 
perhaps the lion's head was introduced by a mistake 
of the carver, who ought to have introduced here the 
dwarf. No. 12, perhaps, represents the lady of the 
castle and her damsels, looking on Lancelot and his 
cart with feelings of shame. In No. 10, he is passing 
the strange and perilous bridge ; and No. 9 represents 
his encounter with the lions. Some attributes in 
these figures are not easily explained from the ro- 
mance, and they may have been taken from another 
version of it. Perhaps the spears and sword-blades 
issuing from the clouds are intended to indicate that 
it is all the work of enchantment. 

We thus see that the romance of Lancelot (which, 
I may observe, was the foundation of the later romance 
of the Mort Arthur), has its representative on our 
casket. We shall find the other grand love romance, 
that of Tristan, figuring there too. 

In the course of their adventures the two lovers 
had given each other a rendezvous by night under a 
tree in king Mark's orchard. The king, informed of 

l'espee, et met l'escu par devant son vis, et apele les lyons qui 
ja estoient descayne, et il acorent, si li rendent grant assaut. — 
Lancelot, ib. fol. 196, v°. 



96 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

their intentions by a spy, concealed himself in the 
tree to be a witness of his wife's infidelity. The 
night happened to be moonlight, and, as the queen 
approached the spot, she beheld the shadow of her 
husband's face in a fountain under the tree, before 
she had said anything to criminate herself. She 
made her lover understand their danger, and their 
conversation took such a turn as convinced the king 
that Isoude and Tristan had been unjustly slan- 
dered.* 

This scene is represented in the compartment of 
one side of the casket, marked No. 6, and there are cir- 
cumstances about it which would seem to show that 
the carver was following a model the subject of which 
he did not perfectly understand. There is something 
original in the substantial manner in which the shadow 
of the king's face is represented ; but, if we look closer, 
we shall see that, while the real substantial king 
Mark in the tree is represented as a beardless youth, 
his shadow in the water possesses a beard of fair 
dimensions. The carver has either taken the beard 
in the substance above for part of the tree, or he 
transformed a part of the water beneath into a beard 
for the shadow. 

I am inclined to think that our casket presents 
another subject taken from the romance of Tristan. 
On one occasion, Isoude was obliged to clear herself 

* This incident is described in one of the fragments of the 
romance of Tristan, published in Michel's Collection, vol. i. 
page 1, which opens imperfectly in the middle of the scene. It 
will be found in the early English romance, Scott's " Sir Tris- 
trem," fytte ii. stanzas 86 to 95. It may be observed, that sir 
Walter Scott has erroneously printed the name Ysorcde through- 
out the poem : it is in Latin Isolda ; in Anglo-Norman and old 
French, Isolde and Isoude. 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 97 

by an oath taken upon the holy relics, to visit which 
she had to pass a river. Tristan came there in the 
disguise of a beggar, and was employed to carry his 
mistress over the water, and a pretended accident 
enabled her to avoid perjury by an equivocation, 
easily enough explained by the picture, for she swore, 
that no man had ever been between her legs except 
her husband, king Mark, and the beggar-man who 
carried her over the water. The compartment, marked 
No. 4, appears to represent Isoude carried on the 
shoulders of the pretended beggar. I will only re- 
mark, that this seems to be the way in which gentle- 
men carried ladies in the middle ages. 

The other two classes of romances to which I have 
alluded, also find their representatives on this casket. 
The romance of Alexander the Great, with its various 
branches, enjoyed great popularity during the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries ; and some of its in- 
cidents gave rise to separate poems or tracts. Seve- 
ral of these relate to the great monarch's instructor, 
Aristotle. One division of the romance, and no small 
one, related to the monstrous animals the conqueror 
of India was said to have met with in his travels, and 
a tract in which Aristotle is made to describe these 
monsters, had an extensive influence on the science 
of natural history as it was taught in the middle ages. 
But the philosopher and his pupil were made to figure 
in a story of a more amusing character. 

Love and gallantry appear to have been the grand 
occupation of the ladies in all grades of society during 
the middle ages, and the laxitude of mediseval man- 
ners allowed of a degree of licence which we can now 
with difficulty conceive. If this procured for the fair, 
on one hand, the devotion and service of the gentler 

II. F 



98 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

class of poets, it exposed them, on the other, to the 
attacks of the satirist and moralist, and these were 
often bitter and coarse. But the victims found their 
revenge in a number of stories in which the wisest 
philosophers and greatest sages were humbled be- 
neath the irresistible sway of beauty. One of these 
stories related to Alexander and his teacher, and was 
in the thirteenth century made the subject of a little 
poem by a trouvere named Henri d'Andeli, which 
bears the title of the Lai d'Aristote. 

Alexander, according to this romantic story, had 
a very beautiful Indian princess for his mistress ; and 
her charms were so powerful, that the king neglected 
not only the lessons of his teachers but the counsels 
of his ministers. At last, Aristotle took an opportu- 
nity of expostulating so warmly with his royal pupil, 
that for a time Alexander absented himself from 
the society of the princess. The latter at length 
pressed her lover to tell her the cause of his apparent 
coldness, and he made a full confession. The lady 
was resolved to have her revenge ; she clad herself 
one morning in a loose dress, gave herself her most 
tempting airs, and placed herself in the way of the 
philosopher, who, in spite of his age and wisdom, 
was suddenly seized with the most violent passion, 
and pressed earnestly for her love. The princess 
refused to listen to him unless he first consented to 
place himself on his hands and knees, submit to a 
saddle and bridle, and in that position to allow her to 
ride round the garden on his back. He agreed to 
her terms, and, in the midst of her ride, Alexander, 
who had been made privy to the plot, suddenly showed 
himself from a window, and rebuked his wise instruc- 
tor for his folly. The moral of the story taught, 



-f3 




byF.WFairhol?T.S.A. 



SQ. 







' - 
1 

W OF S. ST1 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 99 

that none were exempt from love's power, not even 
those who were so eager to speak of it with dis- 
respect. 

The compartments on the front of the casket con- 
tain allusions to the romance of Alexander, and to 
the Lay of Aristotle. In the first, marked No. 2, 
Aristotle is employed in teaching his pupil. The 
next (No. 3.) represents the subject of the lay. The 
allusion in the compartment No. 5, is more doubtful. 
It has been suggested to me that it represents a scene 
in the romance of Alexander, in which that monarch, 
in the course of his Indian campaign, was made to 
descend to the bottom of the sea in a glass globe, in 
order to survey the wonders of the deep. Perhaps 
it is Alexander's globe which is here descending 
among the sea nymphs. But I am inclined to think 
it may be a mere ordinary representation of nymphs 
bathing in a fountain. 

The allegorical romances have their representative 
in the subject on one end of the casket (No. 8), and 
perhaps also in the larger subject which covers the 
lid. The first is probably taken from the Romance 
of the Rose, and seems to represent Danger consent- 
ing to receive the lover into the tower in which Bel- 
accueil is shut up. It would take more time than is 
at present at our disposal, to give such an analysis of 
this romance as would explain the story. 

The large figure on the lid represents the attack 
upon, and defence of, the castle of love. The weapons, 
it will been seen, are roses, with one exception, that 
of love himself, who makes use of his arrows. The 
tournament in the middle is a part of the subject, 
which was one of great popularity in the age to which 
this relic belongs, and is frequently found repre- 



100 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

sented on articles used by the ladies. It appears, 
indeed, that among the imaginative Provencals of 
the warm south, where these love-allegories were 
wrought into substantial pastimes, this scene of mock 
warfare was not unfrequently put into actual prac- 
tice. Such a scene is recorded as having been acted 
at Vincenzo in 1 2 1 6 ; a wooden castle was built, de- 
fended by ladies dressed in magnificent robes, and 
attacked by knights. Flowers were the only missiles 
they were permitted to use. A Provencal poet of the 
same age, Kambaud de Vaqueiras, has described, in 
one of his lyrics, the ladies as carrying on this coun- 
terfeit war, and building imitations of castles — 

" Truan mala guerra 
Sai volun coinensar 
Donas d'esta terra 
E vilas contrafar ; 
En plan o en serra 
Volon ciutat levar 
ab tors." 

That is, " The ladies of this land will commence here 
vile wicked war, and counterfeit the vilains; they 
will raise a citadel with towers, on level ground, or 
on a hill." 

There remains one other subject on our casket to 
explain, which, if it does not belong to what we are 
in the custom of calling romances, is still of a roman- 
tic character. It is taken from what may be called 
the romance of science. The compartment No. 7 re- 
presents the well-known story of the fabulous uni- 
corn — the fiercest of animals — which yet became tame 
when in the presence of a pure maiden ; and it was 
only under these circumstances that it was ever killed 
by hunters. This subject, involving a beautiful 
allegory, was a favourite one, and is found in innu- 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 101 

merable paintings and sculptures. It is rightly placed 
here among subjects which relate almost entirely to 
love. 

Thus, in tracing the various subjects represented 
on this beautiful casket, we are throwing new light 
on the manners and sentiments of a remote period, 
but one which can never fail to have an interest for 
the historian. The knowledge of manners and senti- 
ments is a very important portion of history itself; 
while by this same monument we are gaining a new 
insight into the history of literature, — one which 
shows us the influence which that literature had on 
the character of the age. It becomes thus a speak- 
ing picture of the past. The reader will no doubt 
remember that singular illustration of the influence 
of one of the very romances pictured on this casket, 
furnished by the immortal stanzas of Dante, where 
the poet describes his meeting with the shades of the 
two lovers Francesca and Paolo de Rimini. The 
lady, at the request of the poetic trespasser on the 
regions below, gives the following account of her 
temptation : — " There is no greater grief," she is 
made to say, " than to remember in one's misfortune 
the past period of happiness ; and your teacher (Vir- 
gil) knows it well. But if thou hast so great a desire 
to know what was the first root of our love, I will 
imitate him who weeps and speaks at the same time. 
We were reading one day for pastime the adventures 
of Lancelot, how he was caught with love ; we were 
alone, and without any distrust. Many times this 
reading made our eyes meet and our cheeks change 
colour; but it was one single passage which over- 
came us. When we read of the soft smile of his 
mistress smothered by the kiss of the lover, this one 



102 KEMARKS ON AN IYORY CASKET 

here, who will never be separated from me, kissed 
me on the mouth, all trembling; the book and its 
writer were for us a Gallehaut ; that day we read no 
more." 

" Ed ella a me : Nessun maggior dolore, 
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice 
ISTella miseria; a cio sa il tuo dottore. 

Ma se a conoscer la prima radice 

Del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto, 
Faro come colui che piange e dice. 

Noi leggevamo un giorno per diletto 

Di Lancillotto, come amor lo strinse : 
Soli eravamo e senza alcun sospetto. 

Per piii fiate gli occhi ci sospinse 

Quella lettura, e scolorocci il yiso : 
Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse. 

Quando leggemmo il disiato riso 

Esser baciato da cotanto amante, 
Questi, che mai da me non no diviso, 

La bocca mi bacio tutto tremante : 

Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse : 
Quel giorno piii non vi leggemmo avante." — 
Dante, Infern., canto v. 11. 121 — 138. 

But there is another point of view in which the 
consideration of this casket has an interest for the 
archaeologist. We find these identical subjects, col- 
lectively or separately, figured on other caskets, and 
in a manner so similar, that they were evidently 
copied from one model. In the first place, there 
exists another casket, of which a rather rude engrav- 
ing was given in Carter's Ancient Sculpture, and 
which is now preserved in the museum of the late sir 
Samuel Meyrick, which contains the same subjects, 
arranged in the same order, and so similar in design, 
that we might have supposed it the same casket, but 
for a variation in the subject marked No. 4. I have 
some reason for suspecting, that another casket in the 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 103 

same collection contains some of the same subjects. 
A similar casket, then apparently existing in some 
collection in Italy, and engraved by Grori in his The- 
saurus Diptychorum* contained the subjects taken 
from the romance of Lancelot, with the variation, 
that the three ladies are introduced in the same com- 
partment with Lancelot in the cart, and that he is 
engaged, as in the romance, with two lions ; and it 
has the siege of the castle of love as here on the lid, 
but the other subjects are different, — one side being 
taken up with subjects from the romance of Valentine 
and Orson. The siege of the castle of love is found, 
perhaps, more frequently than any of the others. In 
the sixteenth volume of the Arch&ologia, a plate of 
ivory was engraved, with a carving of this subject 
treated in nearly the same manner, but showing the 
moment in which the knights make themselves masters 
of the fortress and are received with open arms by 
its defenders ; and a similar plate of ivory, with the 
same subject, engraved in Du Sommerard's Album, 
shows that this article was the back of a mirror. The 
same subject appears in one of the illuminations of 
the now celebrated Loutterel Psalter, The Lay of 
Aristotle, and the legend of the unicorn, are of still 
more frequent occurrence. 

The circumstance of this repetition of the same 
subjects and the same designs is a curious pheno- 
menon in the history of mediaeval art. It shows that 
there was one common origin for certain classes of 
artistic productions — a principal school, from which, 

* Reproduced in a plate in Ferrario, " Analisi degli Ro- 
manzi di Cavalleria," torn. ii. page 101 ; and in the " Memoires 
de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres," torn, xviii. 
page 322. 



104 REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 

probably, not only the practice of the art, but the 
particular series of subjects to be engraved, were de- 
rived, and these were varied, perhaps, according to 
established rules, on which a careful comparison of 
such relics as that now before us may throw some 
light. The same practice is traced in other lines 
of mediaeval art, and offers a question well worthy 
of minute examination. 

I will conclude with pointing out a singular cir- 
cumstance connected with this particular subject. A 
few of these romance subjects are found sculptured 
on buildings, and even in churches. The legend of 
the unicorn is met with on architectural monuments, 
and in the carved stalls of the church of Stratford- 
on-Avon and Chester cathedral ; and the lay of Aris- 
totle is sculptured on the masonry of the cathedral 
of Lyons, and on the stalls of that of Rouen. In the 
church of St. Pierre, at Caen, there is a capital of a 
column of about the date of our casket, on which are 
represented part of this same series of subjects, and 
under the same forms. It would seem as if the stone 
sculptor had obtained, among his other designs be- 
longing to his own class of artists, a copy of this par- 
ticular set from the artists from whose hands we 
derive the ivory caskets. 

The curious sculptures on the column of the church 
of St. Pierre,* run round the capital of one of the 



* The church of St. Pierre, at Caen, is an interesting edifice. 
The choir and part of the nave, according to the account given 
by the Abbe de la Kue (JEssais historiques sur la ville de Caen, 
vol. i. page 94), were built at the latter end of the thirteenth 
century ; and the rest of the nave and tower were finished in 
1308. M. de la Rue, in the work just alluded to, has given 
bad and incorrect engravings of these sculptures, and has quite 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 



105 



columns of the nave. Among them we find, as here 
represented in our cut No. 1, the story of the unicorn, 




No. 1. The Legend of the Unicorn. 

which, as I have already observed, is found repeatedly 
on monuments of almost every description. It differs 
in one respect from every other example of this sub- 
ject I have met with, in which the hunter uses a 
spear ; he is here armed with a bow and arrow. A 
second compartment of these sculptures (see the cut, 
No. 2) represents other subjects, taken from what 
may be called the romance of science. We have on 




No. 2. Legends in Natural History. 

one side the phoenix rising from its flames, a subject 
celebrated so often in mediaeval literature ; and on the 

misunderstood and misinterpreted them. He says, that they 
are on the capital of " one of the last pillars of the left side of 
the nave," but it is not clear whether they belong to the older 
or to the later building. 

F 2 



106 



REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 



other the equally wide-famed pelican. Both these 
subjects were favourite emblems with our forefathers. 
Between them appears a man forcing open the jaws 
of a lion which he has vanquished, but whether it be 
intended to represent the story of Samson, or a similar 
incident which occurs in more than one mediaeval 
romance, I will not venture to decide. The next 
compartment (No. 3) represents Lancelot in the dis- 
graceful cart. We at once observe the exact simili- 
tude in this design with those which have been pointed 




No. 3. Lancelot in the Cart. 



out in the caskets ; the somewhat elegantly formed 
cart, with its wheels and bells, the manner in which 
the knight is reclined, and the spears and sword- 
blades issuing from the clouds, and which I can only 
explain by supposing them to represent enchantment, 
are the same in each. This is the more remarkable, 
because in the illuminated manuscripts of the romance 
the design is quite different. There we have a com- 
mon country cart, driven by a peasant, without bells 
or any of the other accessories of the sculptured de- 
signs. Perhaps the bells distinguish the vehicle as 
a cart in which criminals were conveyed to the 
scaffold. The next compartment (No. 4) represents 
Lancelot passing the water on the terrible sword. 



OP THE FOUETEENTH CENTURY. 



107 



On the opposite bank stands (or rather, sits, and in a 
very grotesque posture) one of the lions, waiting his 



A 

l&jj 


MDI 




^^--^y^mlllllffl 








fi 


liiiii 


m 


IPS 


^iP^S 






4 mi 



No. 4. Lancelot on the Perilous Bridge. 

arrival; and from the tower behind, the queen is 
seen watching the progress of her lover. 

The fifth compartment of the sculptures at Caen 
represents the humiliation of the philosopher Aris- 
totle, by the mistress of his royal pupil, which is 




No. 5. Aristotle in love. 

treated with considerable skill. The lady here rides 
astride, with saddle and stirrups, whereas in the 
casket she rides in the same posture as ladies of the 
present day. From a very early period, indeed, — 
probably from the time of the Norman Conquest, as 
various allusions of contemporary writers prove, — 
ladies appear to have ridden in either posture at 
will. 



108 



REMARKS ON AN IVORY CASKET 



The last compartment is closely allied to the sub- 
ject last described, but it introduces us to a new 
romance, and is not found represented upon any other 
early monument with which I am acquainted. The 
romance of the Saint Graal forms one of the same 
series as that of Lancelot ; it represents a kind of 
wild romantic account of the carrying of the Gospel 
to the west. Among one of the episodes is a legend, 
which does not appear to have belonged originally 
to the romance, relating to the physician Hippocrates, 
or, as he was called in the middle ages, Ypocras. The 
physician came to Rome to the court of " Cassar Au- 
gustus," and gained that emperor's special favour by 
the miraculous cure of his favourite nephew. The 
Ypocras of the fable was a philosopher and magician, 
as well as a physician, and he lived long at the court 
of Rome honoured and beloved. While he was still 
there, a company of people from Gaul arrived at 
court, and with them was a maiden of surpassing 
beauty, who soon became an object of admiration 
among the Romans. Ajnong the rest, Ypocras, in 
spite of his philosophy and his other sage qualifica- 




No. 6. Ypocras in the Basket. 



tions, became desperately enamoured of the Gallic 
maiden, and he seized every opportunity of pressing 



OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 109 

his suit. The maiden, in order to turn the wise 
philosopher to ridicule, encouraged his advances, and 
at last she agreed to admit him by night into her 
chamber, which was situated in a tower of the palace. 
She promised to let down a basket with a cord from 
the summit of the tower, and to raise him in it to her 
window, as the surest method of obtaining access to 
her unobserved. At the time appointed, the philo- 
sopher, true to his promise, came to the foot of the 
tower, found the basket, placed himself in it, and 
shook the string, as the signal that he was ready. 
The lady and her female attendant immediately 
pulled the basket up to near the summit of the tower, 
where it was impossible for the philosopher to get 
out, and there left him hanging during the following 
day, an object of derision to the whole population of 
Rome. The disgrace was great, as to be thus ex- 
posed in a basket was at that time the usual punish- 
ment for some very grievous misconduct. Ypocras 
subsequently executed a cruel vengeance on the 
author of his disgrace, which it is not necessary here 
to relate.* 

The compartment of the Caen sculptures just 
alluded to (see cut No. 6), represents, in a not very 
artistical manner, the Gallic maiden, at the summit 
of the tower, drawing up Ypocras in the basket. It 

* This same story, altered in some of its details, and with 
altogether a different conclusion as far as the lady was con- 
cerned, was a little later applied to the magician and philosopher 
Virgil (for such was the character which the bard of Mantua 
assumed in the middle ages), and it formed a chapter in the old 
legendary history, called the " Life of Virgil." As told of 
Virgil, the story was very popular, as it is often alluded to in 
the popular writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 



110 IVORY CASKET OF FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

was appropriately placed by the side of the story of 
Aristotle ; both legends were used in the middle ages 
by the advocates of the ladies, to throw discredit on 
the pretended sages who professed to despise their 
charms and bid defiance to the power of love. 





XVIII. 

ON THE CARVINGS OF THE STALLS IN 

CATHEDRAL AND COLLEGIATE 

CHURCHES. 

HE successive visits of the British Ar- 
chaeological Association to Winchester, 
Gloucester, and Worcester, — which places, 
as well as some of the churches in their 
vicinity, all present remarkable specimens of the 
carved stalls so generally found in the cathedral and 
collegiate churches of this and other countries, — 
drew more than once the attention of its mem- 
bers to these interesting monuments of mediaeval art. 
These stalls were, in fact, those especially appro- 
priated to the members of the collegiate body ; and 
the seats, instead of being fixed and immoveable, turn 
upon hinges, and when turned up, the under side ex- 
hibits a mass of sculpture, arranged according to a 
regular and unvarying plan, in which the workmen 
and artists have exhibited their skill and imagination 
in a very remarkable manner. It is difficult to say 
how this arrangement of the seats originated, and 
what was the reason of their being thus adorned ; but 



112 CARVINGS OF THE STALLS 

as they are invariably found under the circumstances 
just mentioned, they appear to have been considered 
as an indispensable part of an ornamentation of a 
collegiate church. Several conjectural explanations 
of these seats have been offered, the popular opinion, 
however, being that they were turned up during a 
part of the service when the clergy were not allowed 
to be seated ; but that out of pity to the aged or in- 
firm, they were allowed to rest themselves against 
the bracket over the sculpture, which afforded a sup- 
port without allowing them actually to be seated. 
For this reason, it is said, they received in France 
the title of misericordes (still preserved among the 
French archaeologists) and patiences ; while our Eng- 
lish antiquaries generally call them misereres* Why, 
however, this particular class of sculptures, seldom 
found (except at an early period) in any other part 
of the church, should have been appropriated espe- 
cially to these seats, is a question to which I am not 
aware that any satisfactory solution has yet been 
found. 

It is to these sculptures alone that the present 
notice, very brief in proportion to the real interest of 
the subject,| will be devoted. These sculptures 

* Ducange has, under the word Misericordia, the explana- 
tion, " Selluhe, erectis formarum subselliis appositse, quibus 
stantibus senibus vel infirmis per misericordiam insidere con- 
ceditur, dum alii stant, Gallis misericordes vel patiences. S. 
Willelmi Consuet. Hirsaug. 1. ii. cap. 2. ' Prinium in ecclesia 
quamdiu scilla pulsatur ante nocturnos, super misericordiam 
sedilis sui, si opus habet, quiescit.' " 

f Very little has been written on the subject of these sculp- 
tures, and, considered as mere gross representations, they have 
been much neglected, and a great number of them have been 
suffered to be destroyed. A few were engraved by Carter, in 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 113 

range in date from the thirteenth century to the age 
of the Beformation, and are distinguished by various 
degrees of excellence. Sometimes they are very 
rude, but more commonly, like the illuminations in 
some manuscripts, they possess a considerable share 
of artistic skill. Found on the continent, as well 
as in England, the general character of the subjects 
is so uniform, that we might almost suppose that the 
carvers throughout Europe possessed one regular and 
acknowledged series of working patterns. Yet there 
is a great variety in the details of the subjects and in 
the manner of treating them. It may be observed, 
that the ornamentation consists generally of a prin- 
cipal subject, immediately supporting the bracket, 
and of two side lobes or cusps springing from the 
latter. These side ornaments consist sometimes of 
mere foliage, attached to the bracket by a stalk ; 
sometimes they are grotesques, or separate subjects, 
having little or no connection with the central piece ; 
while they are often a dependent and important part 
of the story represented under the bracket. Writers 
of vivid imaginations have given them no less 
variety of interpretations. Some have conceived 
them to be satirical attacks directed by the monks at 
one another, or at the secular clergy ; while others 
have imagined that these strange and grotesque 
figures embodied in allegorical form the deepest mys- 
teries of our holy faith. Each of these opinions was 
equally far from the truth. In all probability neither 
the designers nor the carvers were monks, although 
it is evident that they were men of a certain degree 

his " Ancient Sculpture." The very interesting series in the 
cathedral at Rouen were engraved and described by M. 
Langlois. 



114 CARVINGS OF THE STALLS 

of education, and well acquainted with the popular 
literature of the day, the different classes of which are 
here represented in a pictorial form. In this point 
of view they are valuable as artistic monuments, 
while they illustrate in a most interesting degree the 
manners and habits of our forefathers. 

One of the most popular branches of the popular 
literature alluded to was the science of natural history, 
in the shape in which it was then taught. The trea- 
tises on this subject were designated by the general 
title of Bestiaries (bestiaria), or books of beasts ; they 
contained a singular mixture of fable and truth, and 
the animals with which we are acquainted in our 
ordinary experience stood side by side with monsters 
of the most extraordinary kind. The accounts, even 
of the more common and well known animals, tres- 
passed largely on the domain of the imagination, and 
therefore much more extraordinary were the fables 
relating to those of a doubtful or of an entirely fabu- 
lous character. I may mention, as an example, the 
unicorn — according to mediaeval fable the fiercest and 
most uncontrollable of beasts. A stratagem, we are 
told, was necessary to entrap the unicorn. A beau- 
tiful virgin, of spotless purity, was taken to the forest 
which this animal frequented. The unicorn, tame 
only in the presence of a pure virgin, came imme- 
diately and laid its head gently and without fear in 
the maiden's lap. The hunter then approached and 
struck his prey with a mortal blow, before it had time 
to wake from its security. A more popular character 
was given to these stories by the adjunction of moral- 
izations, somewhat resembling those which are found 
at the end of the fables of ^Esop. The mysterious 
power of the maiden over the unicorn, the resurrection 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 



115 



of the phoenix, the generous nobleness of the lion, the 
craftiness of the fox, the maternal tenderness of the 
pelican, are capable of a multitude of mystical inter- 
pretations. 

The Bestiaries, of all ages, are more universally 
illustrated with pictures than any other book — they 
seem to have contained the first science to be instilled 
into the youthful mind. Every one who has been 
in the habit of examining the sculptured stalls of 
which we are speaking, knows that the stories of 
Bestiaries are among the most common representa- 
tions. On the very interesting stalls in the church 




Fig. 1. From Stratford-on-Avon. 

of Stratford-upon-Avon, we find the story of the 
maiden and the unicorn, the latter being made a 
more cruel sacrifice to the hunter, after having fallen 
a victim to the charms of beauty (Fig. 1). The 
style of this work seems to carry us back to the 
earlier part of the fourteenth century : it is not clear 
to whom the arms belong, but the lobes are formed 
of the leaves and acorns of the oak, the favourite 



116 CARVINGS OF THE STALLS 

foliage of the Early English style of ornamentation. 
The pelican, the elephant, the lion, and the more 
ignoble monkey, have their place on the stalls at 
Gloucester. The fabulous objects of the natural 
history of the middle ages — dragons, chimeras, grif- 
fins, and the like, are much more numerous. The 
syren is seen on the stalls of Great Malvern. 

Next after the Bestiaries, the most popular books 
of the middle ages — books which were pictorially 
illustrated with equal profusion — were the collections 
of JEsopean fables, known under the titles of Ysopets 
and Avynets, from the names of the celebrated fabu- 
lists -ZEsop and Avienus. With these was intimately 
connected the large romantic, or rather satiric, cycle 
of the history of Renard the Fox, which enjoyed an 
extraordinary degree of popularity from the twelfth 
century to the nineteenth. The fables and the ro- 
mance of Renard are frequently represented on the 
stalls. The story of the rats hanging the cat is re- 
presented very grotesquely in a carving on the stalls 
of Great Malvern, probably also of the fourteenth 
century (Fig. 2). The side ornaments are here two 
owls. The man and the ass, the fox carrying away 
the goose, and one or two other similar subjects, are 
found at Gloucester. The fox preaching is found on 
one of the side ornaments of a stall carving in Wor- 
cester cathedral, and is not of unfrequent occurrence 
elsewhere. 

Another class of literature, frequently accom- 
panied with pictorial illustrations in the manuscripts, 
comprises the calendars or ecclesiastical almanacs, in 
which the domestic or agricultural employments of 
each month are pictured at the top or in the margins 
of the page. Such subjects are extremely frequent 



IN CATHEDEAL CHURCHES. 



117 



on the carved stalls. Three stalls in the cathedral of 
Worcester represent men employed in mowing, reap- 




Fig. 2. From Great Malvern. 

ing, and sheaving the corn. Another represents the 
swineherd feeding his pigs, by beating down the 
acorns from the trees. This last is a very common 
subject. Scenes of hunting or hawking are also not 
unfrequently met with. The stall carver has given 
a still wider range to his imagination in representing 
domestic scenes, — which are very frequent, and very 
interesting for the light thus thrown on the popular 
manners of our forefathers in far distant times. A 
very curious example may be cited from the cathedral 
of Worcester, which represents a domestic winter 
scene (Fig. 3). A man closely wrapped up is seated 
beside a fire, stirring his pot ; his gloves, which are 
remarkable for being two-fingered, as well as the ex- 
pression of his features, show that he is suffering 
severely from the temperature. He has taken off his 
boots, and warms his feet by a rather close approxi- 



118 



CARVINGS OF THE STALLS 



mation to the fire. All the details of the picture are 
equally curious, even to the side ornaments ; one of 




Fig. 3. From Worcester. 

which represents two flitches of bacon, the winter's 
provision, suspended to a hook, while on the other a 
rather gigantic cat is basking in the warmth of the 
chimney. The chimney itself is not unworthy of 
notice. 

The domestic cat is met with in other examples. 
On a stall from Minster church, in the isle of Thanet, 
an old woman, a witch-like figure, is occupied at her 
distaff, accompanied by two cats of grotesque appear- 
ance. One of the stalls at Great Malvern, — which, 
like those of Worcester, appear to be of the latter 
part of the fourteenth century — represents a man at 
his dinner. Another in the same church (Fig. 4) 
exhibits a woman in bed, attended by a physician. 
Others of this class are more grotesque and playful, 
representing games and pastimes. One of these here 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 119 




Fig. 4. From Great Malvern. 

given (Fig. 5), from Gloucester cathedral (the sculp- 




Fig. 5. From Gloucester. 

tures of which appear to be of the latter half of the 
fourteenth century), represents two boys playing 
with balls, and is a curious illustration of the costume 
of the period. The whole field is, in these stalls 



120 



CAKVINGS OP THE STALLS 



at Gloucester, covered with ornamentation, and there 
are no side cusps. Sometimes we have very curious 
representations of the processes and implements of 
trade, commerce, and labour. The very interesting 
example of this class of representations here given from 
the church of Ludlow, in Shropshire (Fig. 6), repre- 
sents two men supporting, we might almost say from 




Fig. 6. From Ludlow. 

their posture worshipping, the beer-barrel. Their 
costume, with its " dagged " borders, is of the reign 
of Richard II. The side ornaments here represent 
severally the ale-bench, with the barrel, jug, and 
drinking cup ; the forms of which are valuable data 
for the archaeologist. The stalls of Ludlow church 
have been much mutilated, and evidently with in- 
tention, for the heads, arms, and other prominent 
parts, have been cut off with a sharp instrument. It 
is a very remarkable fact, also, that there is an 
evident distinction of style in them, indicating two 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 



121 



classes of workmanship, one of which is superior in 
design and execution to the other. The workman to 
whom we owe the latter has carefully marked every 
one of his stalls with his sign or mark, a branch ; a 
singularity which I do not remember to have observed 
elsewhere. It is exhibited in the above cut, and will 
be observed similarly placed in two others from the 




Fig. 7. From Ludlow. 

same church, given in the present article. One of 
these (Fig. 7) represents, we are led to suppose, the 
grave-digger, as the implements of his calling, with 
the tomb, and a hand holding up the holy-water pot, 
are seen in the right-hand side ornament. On one 
side of the middle figure are represented a barrel, a 
pair of clogs, a bellows, and a hammer, which might 
throw some doubt on the profession of the individual. 
The mutilation of the arms of the right-hand side 
figure renders it difficult to say exactly how he was 
intended to be occupied. Practical jokes, not always 
II. G 



122 



CARVINGS OF THE STALLS 



restrained within the bounds of the delicacy of modern 
times, are common ; and monks and nuns sometimes 
appear in scenes of this description, of which some 
curious examples are furnished by the stalls of Here- 
ford cathedral. These stalls are of early workman- 
ship, and the side ornaments exhibit the well-known 
early English oak foliage in profusion ; when I saw 
them last, they were scattered in lamentable confusion 
in the church, having been taken from their places 
during the repairs and restorations of the building. 
One of them (Fig. 8), exhibits a scene from the 




Fig. 8. From Hereford. 

kitchen, in which a man is evidently taking liberties 
with the cook-maid, who has thrown a platter at his 
head. A subject closely resembling this is found on 
one of the stalls of the church of Great Malvern. 
These subjects are sometimes carried to a degree of 
indelicacy which cannot be described. 

It is remarkable, and especially characteristic of 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 



123 



these carvings, that scriptural or religious subjects 
are very rare. A stall at Gloucester appears to re- 
present the scriptural story of Sampson overcome by 
the courtesan Dalilah. An example of a saint's 
legend occurs in the representation of the story of 
St. George and the dragon, on a stall at Stratford- 
upon-Avon, the side ornaments to which are not very 
congruous grotesques. This particular subject, how- 
ever, belongs almost as much to chivalrous romance 
as to sacred legend. The stories of the great me- 
diaeval romances also find a place in these representa- 




Fig. 9. From Gloucester. 

tions. A foreign example represents the fabulous 
Aristotle subdued by the charms of his patron's wife 
— the subject of a well-known poem — the Lai d'Aris- 
tote. A stall at Gloucester (Fig. 9), no doubt taken 
from one of the old romances of chivalry, represents a 
knight in combat with a giant. The same cathedral 
furnishes us with interesting representations of knights 



124 CARVINGS OF THE STALLS 

tilting, and of others engaged in the chase. Sub- 
jects that may be considered as strictly allegorical 
are also rare ; perhaps the figure of a naked man en- 
veloped in a net, with a hare under his arm, and 
riding on a goat, in the stalls of Worcester cathedral, 
may be considered as belonging to this class. A 
figure of a fool riding on a goat occurs on the stalls 
at Gloucester, and may have a similar signification. 
The subjects most commonly supposed to be of this 
allegorical character are mere grotesques, copied or 
imitated from those fantastic sketches so often found 
in the margins of manuscripts of the thirteenth, four- 
teenth, and fifteenth centuries. 

A number of very excellent examples of these 
burlesques are presented by the stalls of Win- 
chester cathedral ; the elegant foliage on which would 
bespeak the thirteenth century. In these, the bracket 
is supported by a small group, consisting in most 
cases of grotesque figures of animals or human beings, 
in various postures and occupations. The large side 
cusps, differing in this respect from all the later ex- 
amples, are here the most important part of the sub- 
ject. In some they consist of extremely tasteful 
groups of foliage, generally formed of vine leaves. 
Figures of children or monkeys are in some instances 
intermixed with the foliage. Sometimes the cusp 
consists of a large head or face, exhibiting strange 
grimaces. In one instance the two cusps represent 
a mermaid and a merman. In another we have a 
man fighting with a monster; in one we see a 
woman, seated apparently on a cat, and occupied with 
her woof; others represent musicians playing on the 
pipe or the fiddle ; and in the one given (Fig. 10), 
the musicians are a pig and a sow — a young pig in 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 



125 




Fig. 10. From Winchester cathedral. 

one instance dances to the fiddle, while in the other 
the maternal melody appears to have charms but for 
one of the offspring. 

The stalls of the chapel of Winchester school also 
furnish a very remarkable series of sculptures, of a 




Fig. 1 1 . From the chapel of Winchester school. 



126 CAEVINGS OF THE STALLS 

date not much later than those of the cathedral, and 
containing a number of droll burlesques, among other 
subjects of a more miscellaneous character. The 
accompanying example (Fig. 11), the costume of 
which is that of the reign of Edward III., represents 
a man haunted and tormented by hobgoblins ; he is 
seeking his way by means of a lighted candle, with 
terror impressed on his countenance ; while the imps, 
seated in the side cusps, are making him the object 
of their jeers. 

Another very singular example of diabolical agency 
is here given from a stall at Ludlow, and we may 
again observe on it the private mark of the workman. 
It is curious, because it contains an evident allusion 
to a scene in the mediseval mysteries or religious 
plays. The particular play to which I allude is that 
representing the last judgment, or doomsday, in which 
the demons are introduced dragging into hell a 
variety of classes of dishonest people, thus conveying 
a moral and satirical admonition against some of the 
crying sins of the day, which were most practised 
among, and most offensive to, the lower and middle 
orders of society. One of these great offenders was 
the ale-wife who used short measures. In the stall 
from Ludlow church (Fig. 12), the demon is carry- 
ing the ale-wife, with her false measure and gay 
head-dress, to thrust her into hell-mouth — the usual 
popular representation of which forms the side orna- 
ment to the right ; another demon plays her a tune 
on the bagpipes as she is carried along. It will be 
observed that the head of the demon who carries the 
lady is broken off. A third demon, seated in the 
cusp to the left, reads from a roll of parchment the 
catalogue of her sins. 



IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 



127 




Fig. 12. From Ludlow. 



These carvings are, it will be seen, not only monu- 
ments of mediaeval art, but they may be looked upon 
as important illustrations of mediaeval literature and 
of social and intellectual history, and they show 
us how necessary it is for the archaeologist to ex- 
tend the field of his inquiries beyond the immediate 
limits within which the particular subject under 
consideration appears at first sight to lie, as a monu- 
ment of architecture, or painting, or sculpture, if 
he would thoroughly understand it. An extensive 
study of the literature of the middle ages is needful 
to enable the inquirer to understand the objects of art 
those ages produced, and indeed this is the case for all 
mediaeval monuments, as it is for their history. The 
sculptured stalls, besides their value for the study 
of manners and costume, form a practical illustra- 
tion of the kind and degree of scientific and literary 



128 CARVINGS IN CATHEDRAL CHURCHES. 

information it was thought necessary to place before 
society at large. It was restricted, as we have 
seen, to the bestiaries and the fables, with a smatter- 
ing of the romance of chivalry and of scriptural and 
legendary lore. 




XIX. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS RELATING 

TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 




Mediaeval Architecture Illustrated from Illuminated 
Manuscripts. — Builders at Work. 

N example has already been given of the 
valuable assistance which may be derived 
from the illuminated manuscripts of dif- 
ferent periods, in illustrating architectu- 
ral antiquities. The details in these old pictures are 
not in general drawn with sufficient minuteness to 
enable us to derive much benefit from a comparison 
with existing monuments ; but we learn in them the 
disposition and arrangements of buildings of different 
classes, of which there are now no perfect examples 
left. It has been shown, on a former occasion, that, with 
regard to Anglo-Saxon architecture, the drawings in 
manuscripts of a date anterior to the Norman conquest 
furnish us with data of great importance in identify- 
ing the few existing remains, which without them 
are extremely doubtful. The Anglo-Saxon drawings 

G2 



130 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

present sufficient characteristics for our purpose. But 
after the conquest, when existing monuments, the 
dates of which are known, become more numerous, 
the drawings in the manuscripts have less value in 
this respect, and in many instances the architectural 
characteristics are so badly designed as to be alto- 
gether useless. But, as a compensation for this de- 
fault, the manuscripts represent to us interiors and 
exteriors of castles and monasteries, palaces, manor 
houses, cottages, with street views, and the various 
buildings peculiar to town and country, as they stood 
in different ages and under different circumstances ; 
and these are in general further explained by the 
descriptions in the corresponding text. 

The earlier illuminated manuscripts are chiefly 
copies of the Scriptures, or books of a religious cha- 
racter, and the buildings represented in these are 
mostly ecclesiastical. We find little to illustrate the 
domestic and military architecture of the Anglo- 
Saxons. The same remark applies in some degree 
to the Anglo-Norman period; and it is not till the 
illuminated romances became common, in the thir- 
teenth century, that we find many drawings of houses 
and castles. But there is one part of the subject 
which is illustrated by these illuminations at all pe- 
riods when they are found, and one which cannot 
fail to have an interest for all readers — the occupa- 
tions and the tools of the builder and mason. It 
would be no difficult thing to give a very numerous 
and perfect series of drawings of builders occupied 
with their labours, at every period from at least the 
tenth century down to the sixteenth ; but I will be 
satisfied in the present instance with giving a few 
examples, in regular succession of date, although 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 13 1 

belonging to periods separated by somewhat long 
intervals. 

My first cut is taken from the same manuscript of 
the translation of part of the Scriptures by Alfric, 
which has already furnished the illustrations of An- 



glo-Saxon architecture (MS. Cotton, Claudius B. iv. 
fol. 19), and which was executed at the close of the 
tenth or in the earlier years of the eleventh century. 



132 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

It represents the building of Babel, and is here con- 
siderably diminished from the original. The drawing 
is somewhat rudely executed, though not without 
spirit ; and the workmen show as much contempt for 
the laws of gravitation, as the artist has exhibited 
ignorance of perspective. On the right, a workman 
is carrying the squared stones for the wall one by 
one up a ladder. On the left, two men are employed 
in raising either a large squared stone or a beam of 
timber to a rather singularly formed scaffold, on which 
another labourer is lifting the hod of mortar to the 
workman above. At the top a man is working on a 
dome with a hammer and chisel, while below him 
another is similarly employed on a sloping roof. Two 
others are working with tools of the same description 
at the door. 

The next example is taken from the painted glass 
of a window in the cathedral of Chartres in France, 
executed in the thirteenth century. Our cut is re- 
duced from a larger plate given in the interesting 
Annales Acheologiques, by the distinguished French 
archaeologist M. Didron. In the right-hand com- 
partment two masons are at work on the stones which 
are apparently intended to form parts of mouldings ; 
at their feet are their squares and their compasses, 
and the models of the mouldings are suspended above. 
In the other compartment a mason is employed in 
equalizing the surface of a stone, with a tool which 
appears to have a serrated edge ; and the architect is 
applying a plummet to ascertain if the work be 
accurately vertical. Above are suspended, another 
instrument apparently a saw, and a board on which 
is traced the plan of a building with four corner co- 
lumns and a large clustered pier in the centre. Two 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 133 



of the masons have small caps tied by a band which 
goes under the chin, and it is singular that both 




these and the third mason have crowns, apparently 
of laurel. The mason without a cap has a glove 
on one hand. M. Didron remarks that gloves, to 
be presented to masons and stone-cutters, are often 
mentioned in old documents. In a subsequent num- 
ber of his valuable Annales, he gives the following 
examples. In 1381, the Chatelan of Vallaines en 
Duemois bought a considerable quantity of gloves to 



134 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

give to the workmen, in order ie to shield their hands 
from the stone and lime." In October 1383, as we 
learn from a document of the period, three dozen of 
gloves were bought and distributed to the masons 
when they began the buildings at the Chartreuse of 
Dijon. At Amiens, in 1486 or 1487, twenty-two 
pairs of gloves were given to the masons and stone- 
cutters. 

Our third wood-cut is taken from a manuscript of 
the earlier part of the fifteenth century (MS. Harl. 
No. 4431, fol. Ill), containing the poems of Christine 




de Pisan. The stones are here no longer carried up 
by the hands of the labourers, as in the Anglo-Saxon 
manuscript, but they are raised by a wheel and axle 
— a rather rude attempt at a crane. The mason at 
work on the wall is squaring his stone with a serrated 
tool, like that which is in the hand of one of the work- 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 135 

men in the foregoing scene. The other is measuring 
the stone with a compass. One part of the building 
on which they are employed is a church, with flying 
buttresses. All the dresses of the men employed 
here differ from each other, and perhaps distinguish 
the different classes of the workmen. 

The last example is taken from a beautifully illu- 
minated manuscript of the latter part of the fifteenth 




century (MS. Harl. No. 4376), containing an ancient 
history of the world, in French. Each book is headed 
by a large miniature, several of them representing 



136 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

the building of towns and cities. Our cut gives only 
a portion of one of these miniatures, and is reduced in 
size from the original. The buildings of the town, seen 
in the distance, are neatly executed, and the orna- 
mental conduit, behind the tower on which the work- 
men are employed, is extremely beautiful. The 
whole forms a very interesting picture. The crane 
employed here is a much more perfect machine than 
that exhibited in the preceding cut. The tools em- 
ployed by the workmen in front differ little from 
those seen in the two preceding groups. The archi- 
tect, with his staff in his right hand, is represented 
in the act of receiving his orders from the prince or 
duke, under whose auspices the city has been founded. 
The smaller cut in our margin, taken from the same 

manuscript, represents a 
group of builders, with a 
trowel and hod of mortar, 
at work upon a tower, — 
not upon a chimney, as 
the artists proportions 
would have led us to 
suppose. 

In reviewing and comparing these various repre- 
sentations of the same process at so widely distant 
periods, we are struck much less with their diversity, 
than with the close resemblance between both work- 
men and tools which continues amid the continual, and 
sometimes rapid, changes in the condition and manners 
of society. Whether this be in any measure to be at- 
tributed to the circumstance of the masons forming a 
permanent society among themselves, which trans- 
mitted its doctrines and fashions unchanged from 
father to son, it is not very easy to determine. But 




RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 137 

it is certainly remarkable that at the period when 
architecture flourished most, the date of some of the 
richest portions of the cathedral of Chartres, the 
masons should be represented with crowns of laurel 
on their heads. 



A Word on Mediceval Bridge-builders. 

The history of bridge-building in the middle ages 
is a subject well worthy of our attention, and diligent 
research would no doubt bring to light many curious 
documents relating to it. Most of the bridges made by 
the Romans were probably destroyed in the invasion of 
the barbarians ; and, through the dark ages which fol- 
lowed their irruption, travelling, where the roads lay 
across rivers, must have been attended with many 
obstacles and dangers. A corporate town had gene- 
rally its bridge, which was kept in repair at the expense 
of the townsmen. But in other places, in those 
troubled times, a ford, or a much rarer bridge, was 
often seized upon by some feudal oppresssor, who 
established himself in the neighbourhood to plunder 
and ill-treat the travellers who had to pass it. 

As long as the laity only were grieved, little at- 
tention appears to have been paid to these evils ; but 
when pilgrimages became fashionable, the grievance 
was felt by the Church, which then used its influence 
for the benefit of society in establishing bridges and 
securing a safe passage over them. It seems not 
improbable that societies or lodges of bridge-builders 
existed at an early period, and that they were relics 
of the policy of Roman times ; but the history of such 
societies is involved in great obscurity. The Church 



138 ILLUSTKATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

appears to have taken them up and encouraged them 
in the twelfth century, and then they were endowed 
with a certain religious character. 

The people of Avignon, in the south of France, had 
long felt the want of a bridge over the Rhone, when 
(in 1177, according to the legendary history), as the 
bishop was endeavouring to console the citizens as- 
sembled in the cathedral and relieve their minds from 
the terror caused by a solar eclipse, a poor shepherd 
named Benezet (latinized into Benedictus) presented 
himself before them, and declared that he was sent 
by God to build them a bridge. The bishop was in- 
credulous, and treated the man as an imposter or a 
madman. But Benezet persisted in his story ; and 
at length, to try him, the bishop ordered him to carry 
to the river an immense mass of rock which thirty 
men could scarcely move, and throw it into the torrent 
as the foundation stone. Bezenet agreed to the trial, 
and in the presence of an immense multitude per- 
formed his task to their complete satisfaction. Con- 
vinced by this miracle, the citizens entered zealously 
upon the work ; money was raised by levying a tax, 
and in 1188 the bridge was completed, which was so 
strongly built that it remained uninjured until 1662, 
when one of the central arches gave way, and it 
became a ruin. 

The life, or rather legend, of St. Benezet, for his 
name was placed in the Romish calendar, was written 
long after his death, and contains several inconsisten- 
cies. Historical facts are concealed under a cloak of 
monkish inventions, and it is not improbable, if the 
truth were known, that the pretended saint was a 
member of some lodge of bridge-builders, and that 
the miracle consisted in some powerful mechanical 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 139 

contrivance to lift huge masses and place them in the 
bed of the river. A college or religious fraternity of 
bridge-builders was, however, formed at Avignon, 
and Benezet was placed at its head. His name 
occurs as their prior in 1187 ; but it seems to be not 
quite clear whether this was the first foundation of 
the order, or whether it had existed before he offered 
himself to undertake the erection of the bridge. The 
order of bridge-builders at Avignon, with the pecu- 
liar love of punning which characterized the middle 
ages, were called fratres pontificates ; and sometimes 
fratres pontis and j uctores pontium. 

This fraternity of bridge-builders soon extended its 
influence into other parts of France, and appears to 
have existed in tolerable activity through the thir- 
teenth century. It declined and became forgotten, 
when the extension of science and mechanical know- 
ledge rendered its efforts no longer necessary. In 
1270, the fraternity built the bridge at Bon-pas on 
the Durance. Among their other works were the 
bridges at Lourmarin between Aix and Apt, at Ma- 
lemort on the Durance, and at a place called in the 
old Latin document Podium sanguinolentum. The 
two latter names seem to show sufficiently the dan- 
gerous character of the spots previous to the erection 
of the bridges. The members of this fraternity are 
said by some to have worn as their badge the figure 
of a mason's hammer on their breast. According to 
Ducange (Gloss, v. fratres pontis) their dress was a 
white vest with a sign of a bridge and cross of cloth 
on the breast. 

Our information relating to these fraternities of 
bridge-builders is at present very unsatisfactory. It 
is probable that there were similar companies in other 



140 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

countries, such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, 
Denmark, &c, as we find many bridges built in those 
countries during this period under the directions of 
ecclesiastics; but it is at present impossible to say 
how far they were connected with one another. It 
has been pointed out as rather a singular coincidence 
that at the same time that Benezet or Benedictus was 
employed in this manner in France, between 1178 
and 1191, an ecclesiastic of the same name in Sweden, 
Benedict bishop of Skara, distinguished himself as a 
great bridge-builder. 

A rather prolific French writer, the Comte H. 
Gregoire, who gave up his bishopric of Blois to take 
a part in the events of the great revolution, published 
at Paris, in a small pamphlet of seventy-two pages, 
8vo., 1818, the result of somewhat extensive re- 
searches on the history of the fratres pontificates, 
under the title, Recherches historiques sur les congre- 
gations hospitalieres des freres pontifes. This I have 
not been able to consult ; the British Museum appears 
not to possess a copy, and the only reference I can 
give for information on the subject in our great na- 
tional establishment is to the Allgemeine Encyclopddie 
of Ersch and Gruber, article Bruckenbruder, from 
which this brief notice is partly compiled. 

I will only add as a hint that I believe our national 
records and the archives of our cities and boroughs 
contain scattered materials for a very interesting his- 
tory of bridge-building in England. 



KELATING TO AECHITECTUEAL ANTIQUITIES. 141 

On the Remains of Proscribed Races in Medieval and Modern 
Society, as explaining certain peculiarities in old Churches. 

A valuable, because a very suggestive, paper, was 
read at the Ethnological Society by Dr. Latham ; on 
" The existence in the different countries of Europe 
of colonies of known foreign races among peoples 
of a different family." Dr. Latham treated only in 
general terms a question which admits of, and I may 
add requires, minute and extensive investigation in 
each particular country ; and it would not only be 
interesting to trace the remains of colonies of this 
kind formed at different periods, but also to investi- 
gate the traces of fragments of races which are not 
to be in this way accounted for, and which are pro- 
bably of much more remote antiquity. These two 
classes of questions we ourselves find at home. 
During the ages of feudalism, when a prince or great 
baron — for princes were then only superior barons — 
held territories in several different countries, and 
when wars and other causes led not unfrequently to 
the entire depopulation of a particular district, it was 
not unusual for the feudal lord to supply the ex- 
hausted population by bringing over a colony from 
his foreign feudal possessions, or from elsewhere, to 
supply the deficiency. We have a remarkable in- 
stance of this practice in the colony of Flemings, 
planted by king Henry I. in Pembrokeshire, and 
which in the time of Giraldus Cambrensis, a good 
part of a century afterwards, remained perfectly dis- 
tinct from the surrounding populations. That writer 
gives us one or two traits of their manners, among 
which was the practice of divination by the bladebone 
of a sheep (especially of a ram), a superstition which, 



142 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

as we learn from Guillaume de Rubruquis, existed 
among the Tartars in the thirteenth century. All 
memory of their Flemish extraction has, I believe, 
long disappeared among the population of the neigh- 
bourhoods of Tenby and Haverford, which was the 
country the Flemings occupied, and I am not aware 
that any one has investigated those physical charac- 
teristics of this population which might bear upon the 
ethnological question; but in revising lately some 
notes on the manners and popular superstitions of the 
peasantry of this district, I was surprised to find that 
the practice of divination by the bladebone of mutton 
still exists there, or at least existed there very re- 
cently, — as used by young girls to find out who are 
to be their husbands or sweethearts. I have under- 
stood that colonies of Germans in Ireland, of much 
less remote date, are similarly recognized by their 
popular superstitions. Of the second of these classes 
of ethnological facts, the traces are with us in general 
almost if not quite obliterated. We should be very 
much mistaken if we supposed that it was usual in 
the movements of races in ancient or mediaeval times 
for the conquering and conquered peoples to amal- 
gamate together. The latter often became an inferior, 
a despised, and sometimes a hated class in the new 
society. They seem usually to have sunk into, and 
become amalgamated with, the mass of the servile 
population, but under certain circumstances portions 
of the older races which had succumbed before suc- 
cessful invasion preserved for a long period a distinct 
and independent existence in the midst of their con- 
querors. The Anglo-Saxon race appears to have 
possessed a peculiar aptitude for taking into its 
bosom these fragments of other peoples thrown into 
its way, and forgetting their difference of origin ; and 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 143 

we lose all trace of them at a comparatively early 
period. 

The case, however, was different on the continent 
of Europe, where, especially in Spain and France, 
fragments of distinct peoples have not only continued 
to exist through the middle ages, but actually remain 
in existence at the present day, and are known among 
the antiquaries and historians of the latter country 
by the general appellation of races maudites, accursed 
or proscribed races. The most remarkable and ex- 
tensively spread of these proscribed races is that 
which is known in the dialects of the districts over 
which it is scattered by the various appellations, or 
rather different forms of one word, of Cagots or Ca- 
po ts, Caqueux, Gahets, or Agots. They were formerly 
scattered tolerable thickly, in France, throughout the 
provinces of Lower Navarre, the Basque countries, 
Beam, Gascony, Guienne, Lower Poitou, Brittany, 
and Maine ; and, in Spain, in Upper Navarre, chiefly, 
and in Guipuzcoa : and at the present day there is 
scarcely a parish in these provinces in which we do 
not find, if not a few families or individuals of this 
race remaining, at least a vivid recollection of their 
former existence. They were under no sort of ser- 
vitude to the other classes of society, but were re- 
garded by all with a degree of contempt and hatred 
which we can hardly conceive, and which was in a 
manner consecrated by local laws and customs. They 
were obliged to live separately, or collectively, in 
small hamlets, at a distance from the habitations of 
the rest of the population, from intercourse with whom 
they were virtually cut off, even in the performance 
of religious worship. A corner of the church was 
usually set apart for them, to which they entered by 



144 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

a small door made expressly for them, which was 
known as the Cagot's door, and through which none 
but Cagots would pass for any consideration. These 
doors are now frequently found walled up, but they 
are still known universally as the Cagots' doors. They 
had a small holy-water stoup set apart for them 
in their own corner of the church, which nobody 
else would approach ; and, where they were allowed 
to partake of the holy communion, the consecrated 
wafer was usually reached to them at the end of a 
cleft stick. They had, in the same manner, a sepa- 
rate patch of ground for burial, which none but per- 
sons of their own race would approach, for the mark 
of infamy they bore extended even to the grave. 
They were not permitted to enter the country towns 
except at particular times, and under various restric- 
tions, and they were allowed to enter only by one 
door, and along one street, which were commonly 
known as the Cagots' gate and the Cagots' street. A 
decree of the parliament of Toulouse, relating to the 
town of Lourdes, expressly forbade the Cagots to go 
into that town by any other way than a small street, 
there indicated, and they were allowed to march only 
under the eaves of the houses, or rather under the 
spouts which discharged the water from the roofs, 
evidently because this was exactly the place which 
everybody would avoid. They were further for- 
bidden to enter the town before sunrise, or to re- 
main in it after sunset, or to sit down anywhere while 
they remained within its limits. They were even 
obliged, in each particular district they inhabited, to 
take their water from one particular spring, which 
was known as the Cagots'' fountain, and which no 
other people would use. After these" statements, it 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 145 

is hardly necessary to remark that all intermarriage 
between them and the rest of the population was 
strictly prohibited. 

The Cagots exercised almost universally either the 
craft of carpenters, or some of those which were 
closely connected with it, such as sawyers, joiners, 
cartwrights, and wheelwrights, &c. This adoption of 
professions may have arisen chiefly from accidental cir- 
cumstances, but it was so general that in some parts 
the name of Cagot was used commonly as synony- 
mous with that of carpenter. 

The history of these people, who have diminished 
greatly in numbers, is involved in the utmost obscurity 
until a comparatively recent date, but their existence 
at a remote period is placed beyond dispute. Cagots 
are mentioned in a deed in the chartulary of the 
abbey of Luc as early as the year 1000. Grahets are 
spoken of in legal documents connected with Bor- 
deaux during the thirteenth century. Records of 
their existence in the fourteenth century are more 
frequent, and show us that at that time they were 
neither serfs nor vassals of the lords of the land, but 
that they had an independent and rather anomalous 
existence. It is a curious circumstance, and one 
which adds still more to the mystery in which this 
question is shrouded, that these earlier documents 
designate the people of whom I am speaking by the 
distinctive appellation of Christians, which is cer- 
tainly that of all others which we should least have 
expected to find applied to them. The light in which 
they were regarded is illustrated by some of the ear- 
lier municipal laws, of which the following, taken 
from the municipal laws of Bordeaux of the date of 
1573, may serve as an example. 

II. H 



146 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

Of the Gahets. — " It is ordained, that none of those 
who are called Christiens or Christiennes, or other- 
wise Gahets, from whatever place they may be, shall 
go out of their houses or habitations, or enter into 
this town to go in the streets, without wearing a sign 
of red cloth sewn and attached in front of their breasts, 
in an uncovered and conspicuous place, and without 
having shoes on their feet, under pain of flogging or 
other arbitrary punishment. And the said Gahets 
shall not be allowed to enter into the butcheries, 
taverns, drinking-houses, or bread warehouses of this 
town, and participate with other people, under the 
same pain." 

The popular prejudice continued in full force until 
late in the last century, and was kept up even by the 
teaching and practice of the clergy. At Lurbe, in 
the territory of Oloron, where the Cagots were very 
numerous, the cure, named D'Abidos, who lived at 
the time of the breaking out of the great revolution, 
had a profound contempt for this portion of his flock, 
whom he kept strictly separated from the rest in the 
church. He took every opportunity of insulting 
them in public and spoke of them usually as devoted 
to perdition. It is still remembered that on one oc- 
casion, when a Cagote woman accidentally advanced 
beyond the limit during the performance of service, 
the cure shouted out in a brutal tone, " That is not 
your place, Cagote ; and you must know that I, 
whether I am before you or behind you, am always 
your cure ; but you others, whether you be before or 
behind, will never be anything else but low Cagots." 
The clergy,, however, did not always act thus. At 
Guizerix, in the modern arrondissement of Bagneres- 
en-Bigorre, the Capots, as they were there called, had 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 147 

their separate place in the church and their door, 
through which none of the inhabitants would have 
passed, until one day the archdeacon of Magniac, 
Louis d'Aignan du Sendat, in the visitation of that 
church, in order to abolish the distinction, passed 
through the Capots' door, accompanied by the cure 
and other ecclesiastics; the people were constrained 
to follow them, and from that time they began to use 
both doors indiscriminately. 

These old prejudices were first seriously broken 
down during the great political convulsions of the 
close of the last century, after which time, even mixed 
marriages between the Cagots and the rest of the 
population became common; and the former lost, 
gradually, many of their older characteristics. In 
many districts, which were formerly inhabited by this 
then miserable class, people can only now point out, 
by way of derision, families which are said to have 
been derived from such intermarriages ; in others, 
one or two Cagots of pure blood are known to exist ; 
but the districts are comparatively few in France, in 
which they still remain in any considerable number. 

The natural consequences of these intermarriages, 
and the freer intercourse between the Cagots and 
the rest of the population, render it difficult now to 
speak with much certainty on the physical charac- 
teristics of this race, and our information on the sub- 
ject is rather vague. They are said, however, to 
have been all distinguished by peculiarly white and 
transparent skins, by gray eyes, and by dispropor- 
tionately large heads. According to some accounts, 
the lobe of the ear was either very small or altogether 
wanting. Such careful investigations, however, as 
have yet been made, appear to have confirmed none 



148 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS 

of these statements, except the prevalence of white 
skins and gray eyes. In the commune of Came, can- 
ton of Bidache, arrondissement of Bayonne, there are, 
it appears, at present, nine families of Cagots of un- 
mixed blood, and eleven families descended from the 
marriage of persons not Cagots with Cagot women. 
It is there asserted to have been the invariable 
result of these mixed marriages, that the men or 
women not Cagots, on their marriage with Cagot 
women or men, have been almost immediately at- 
tacked by severe illness, of which they either died or 
became ever afterwards remarkable for their robust 
health. It is added that cases were known of Cagots 
of either sex having, within a very brief period, thus 
sent to the grave as many as three successive wives 
or husbands. 

The origin of a race thus mysteriously placed 
among a people from whom they are evidently quite 
distinct, and which has existed in that situation from 
a period far beyond any historical accounts, must 
naturally be a subject of mere conjectures, and these 
conjectures have been sufficiently various. Some 
have supposed that the Cagots are the descendants of 
the Visigoths, who occupied this part of Gaul at the 
close of the Roman empire. Others derive them 
from the northern invaders of a somewhat later age. 
Others again imagined them to be the remains of the 
Saracen settlers of the Carlovingian period ; and this 
appears to have been the most popular notion. The 
opinion has also been held that the Cagots are rem- 
nants of the persecuted Albigeois of a still more re- 
cent date; and they have been supposed by some 
to be of Jewish origin, which does not appear very 
probable. There is still another notion as to the 



RELATING TO ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 149 

origin of the Cagots. It is the popular tradition in 
some of the districts they inhabit that all the Cagots 
were descended from the carpenters who made the 
cross upon which our Saviour was crucified, and that 
this was the reason why they were all condemned to 
exercise the craft of carpenters. It is not said how 
they found their way to France. This is a fair ex- 
ample of the value of the generality of ethnological 
traditions. 

I have here given but a very hasty and imperfect 
sketch of a race singular both in themselves and in the 
position they have so long held in the midst of another 
people, and I call attention more particularly to them, 
because they are the only one of the races known to 
exist under such circumstances, which has recently 
formed the subject of a distinct and elaborate work, 
at least as far as my present knowledge reaches. 
Those who wish for further information on the sub- 
ject, may consult a very learned and laborious work, 
in two closely printed 8vo. volumes, published by a 
well-known French scholar, M. Michel, in 1847, 
under the title of " Histoire des Races Maudites de la 
France et de VEspagne" where they will find a great 
mass of valuable materials. In the same work will 
be found notices of other proscribed races known to 
exist or to have existed, in those two countries. 

Before concluding, however, I would put the ques- 
tion, have races similarly circumstanced ever existed 
in this country ? I confess that I am inclined to sup- 
pose that such may have been the case, and I think 
we may trace the evidence of them where certainly 
it would hardly be sought by an ethnologist. It is 
well known to the architectural archaeologist, that 
many of our older country churches present singular 
peculiarities — openings in the external walls, known 



150 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS, ETC. 

by such technical names as squints, &c. which allowed 
a view of the altar from a corner of the church, sepa- 
rated from the part occupied by the body of the con- 
gregation ; — sometimes openings in the external walls, 
as though to communicate from the interior with 
people standing without ; and frequent instances of 
small doors in the walls, which have been built up 
evidently from a remote period, — all which peculiari- 
ties are only explained by conjecture, and the ex- 
planations are anything but satisfactory. It has often 
occurred to me that the real object of these openings 
and doors, in some cases at least, may have been to 
allow people to participate in the religious service, 
who were not permitted to intermix on an equality 
with the rest of the congregation, towards whom they 
held a similar position to that of the Cagots of France. 
In Enoland, the last traces of such an intermixture 
with our population may have disappeared long from 
man's memory, as it is probable that it may now 
similarly disappear in France, in the course of a cen- 
tury, or a century and a half, except so far as the 
existence of them has been commemorated in the 
writers of our age. It is a hint which I would throw 
out as not unworthy of the attention of the English 
ethnologist, as well as of the architectural antiquary, 
and which may, perhaps, admit of further investiga- 
tion.* 

* A correspondent of the "Builder," Mr. Edward W. Godwin, 
pointed out an example of what may have been a Cagot's door, 
in the north wall of the church of Little Hampston, near Tot- 
ness. "My attention," he says, "was drawn to it in 1856, by 
the rector, the Rev. Mr. Hill, who, if I remember rightly, in- 
formed me that it always went by the name of ' The Devil's 
door,' a cognomen not at all unlikely to have arisen from the 
popular prejudice against the Cagots. The doorway is small, 
and appears to have been blocked up at a remote period." 



XX. 




ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES IN MEDIAEVAL 

POETRY, AND ITS BEARING ON THE 

AUTHENTICITY OF THE EARLY 

WELSH POEMS. 

HERE are, in modern times, two artificial 
means employed to distinguish poetical 
composition, in addition to its metrical 
form ; these are alliteration, and rhyme. 
The first of these appears to be the earlier in date, and 
in fact it seems more natural to the people of rude and 
primitive ages to mark the consonance of the beginning 
of their words than that of their terminations. The 
primitive poetry of the Teutonic race, the only one 
with which we are really acquainted, was all allitera- 
tive. When the Teutons invaded the provinces of the 
Roman empire, we have no evidence that any of the 
peoples with whom they came in contact used rhyme 
in their verse ; but, on the contrary, we know that 
rhyme was not in use in that language which was 
then the most universally spoken, the Latin, and it 
is precisely in this language alone that we can trace 
the gradual development of rhyme from its first im - 



152 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

perfect form till it reached perfection. I will not 
speak of the literature of some of the Asiatic peoples, 
in which rhyme appears to have existed from an early 
period, for we seem to know nothing of its history in 
those languages, and it has nothing to do with the 
history of rhyme in Europe. 

The history of rhyming verse is in itself sufficiently 
curious. We know that, by accident, or perhaps as 
an occasional embellishment of speech, words rhyming 
with each other were sometimes introduced into 
a line by the best writers of antiquity, as in that of 
Ovid,— 

Quot ccelum stellas, tot habet Roma ^uellas ; 

and in Virgil, — 

Ulum in&ignanti similem, similemque mmanti. 

These are both perfect examples of what were called 
at a later period Leonine verse, in which the syllable 
rhyming to the word at the end of the line was placed 
on the caesura of the verse, and it was therefore 
generally, like these, a rhyme on the penultimate 
syllable. But there can be little doubt that, if 
noticed at all, it was merely considered as an ingeni- 
ous and playful conceit of the writer. Like all other 
conceits of this description, it was used more and 
more frequently by the later Latin poets, and was 
no doubt then considered as an embellishment of their 
versification. Lines like the above occur very fre- 
quently in Ausonius, as in his poem on the Moselle, 
1. 273, 

Desperatanzm potiones rursus aquarwm. 
Gradually, as the knowledge of the old Latin prosody 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 153 

became lost among all but scholars, the rhyming of 
the middle of the verse with the end became a dis- 
tinctive mark of the versification ; and it was when 
both quantity and accent began to be entirely 
neglected, that the plan of marking the divisions of 
the lines of verse by making them rhyme together at 
the end was gradually introduced. At first these 
final rhymes were only introduced here and there in 
a poem, and they were not confined to couplets, but 
an indefinite number of consecutive lines were made 
to end in the same syllable, or at least a syllable 
having the same vowel sound. For a long period this 
final rhyme, when used, was very imperfect, and was 
evidently not at all considered as a principle, and the 
verses in which rhymes are used are generally intended 
to be good Latin hexameters and pentameters ; but, 
as the use of these final rhymes came more generally 
into use, the old system of metrification was itself 
abandoned, and it was considered only necessary to 
make the lines consist of a certain number of syl- 
lables. 

We owe this change to the southern ecclesiastics, 
who adopted this new style of versification for their 
chant music ; and it requires caution in treating of 
the poems in which it occurs, for many of the com- 
positions attributed in manuscripts to the great eccle- 
siastics of the earlier centuries of the church will not 
bear a critical examination, but are evidently works of 
a much later date. Regular rhyming verses, are, how- 
ever, found in the fourth century, though not very 
abundantly, among the genuine hymns of St. Hilarius, 
bishop of Poitiers, who flourished in the middle of the 
fourth century; of pope Damasus, who occupied the 
see of Rome from 366 to 384 ; and of St. Ambrose, 

H 2 



154 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

bishop of Milan, who died in 397. It is only in the 
hymns of the latter of these ecclesiastics that the rhym- 
ing verse becomes regular and frequent. The first 
lines of the hymn de Quadragesima of St. Hilarius, will 
serve as a specimen of the style of these rhyming hymns. 

Jesus, quadrigenariae 
Dicator abstinentiag, 
Quique ob salutem mentiura 
Hoc sanxeras jejuniuni, &c. 

Late in this century — in the year 393 — the great 
St. Augustine composed a popular song against the 
religious sect of the Donatists, in long lines, all 
rhyming imperfectly in a final <?, and in a kind of 
metre differing totally from anything acknowledged 
by pure Latin prosody. It consists of nearly three 
hundred lines, of which a few from the beginning 
will serve for an example. 

Omnes qui gaudetis de pace, modo verum judicate. 
Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres conturbare ; 
Propter hoc Doininus noster voluit nos prsemonere, 
Comparans regnum coelorum reticulo niisso in mare, 
Congreganti niultos pisces, omne genus, hinc et inde. 
Quos quum traxissent ad littus, tunc coeperunt separare, 
Bonos in vasa niiserunt, reliquos malos in mare. 
Quisquis novit Evangelium, recognoscat cum timone. 

This poem is divided into a sort of stanzas by the re- 
petition of the first line, Omnes, &c, at not quite 
equal distances. 

Even during the fifth century, this system of rhym- 
ing verse in the church hymns had evidently not yet 
quite established itself; but, at the beginning of the 
sixth, we find regular Leonines scattered here and 
there through the poem of Orientius, entitled Com- 
monitor iumjidelibus, and the rhyming hymns are more 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 155 

common during this century, but still they belong to 
the south of Europe ; and the same may be said of the 
century following. This new style of composition 
seems to have been slow in reaching Gaul and 
Britain — in fact, for a while, there were few writers 
to practise it. One or two short pieces of verse, 
composed in rhyme, are ascribed to Aldhelm, who 
flourished at the close of the seventh century, and 
who had visited Italy and loved such adventitious 
ornaments of poetry. At the beginning of the next 
century, Boniface, who was much in Italy, and after 
him Bede, use rhymes, though sparingly. A little 
poem among the letters of the former (Epist. 65) com- 
mences thus : — 

Vale, frater, florentibus 
Juventutis cum viribus, 
Ut floreas cum Domino 
In sempiterno solio. 

With a remark which shows that this sort of versi- 
fication was looked upon by the scholars in the West 
as an ingenious novelty. They, in fact, seem to have 
been slow in adopting it, and the principal poets of 
the age of Charlemagne, such as Alcuin, Angilbert, 
Theodulf, Walafrid Strabo, and Hrabanus Maurus, 
never used it. The use of rhyme, however, became 
more general with the Latin poets of the ninth cen- 
tury, and during the two centuries which followed it 
became universal. Still the Latin poets among the 
Anglo-Saxons kept as far as they could to the older 
and purer models, and they rarely make use of rhymes, 
unless in some imitations of the ecclesiastical hymns. 
Such is the hymn on king Athelstan's victory at 
Brunanburg in 938, printed in the Reliquiae Antiques, 
vol. ii. p. 179, in which the rhyme is very rude and 



156 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

imperfect. These ecclesiastical hymns were gene- 
rally arranged in stanzas of four lines, which some- 
times ended all in one rhyme ; sometimes they 
rhymed in couplets, and sometimes the second line 
only rhymed with the fourth. A hymn on the Epi- 
phany, ascribed to a monk of St. Gall, in the middle 
of the ninth century, named Hartman, presents 
a rather more elaborate system of rhymes, of which 
the first stanza may serve as an example. It begins 
thus : — 

Tribus signis, 
Deo dlgnis, 

Dies ista colitur ; 
Tria signa, 
Laude digna, 

Coetus hie persequitur. 

But this lyric poetry, if we may so call it, had not 
yet become popular out of the church, and the nume- 
rous Latin poets, who used rhyme during the tenth 
and eleventh centuries, on the continent, abandoned, 
in a great measure, the rhymes from line to line, to 
adopt the rhyme from the caesura to the end of the 
line, which soon became known by the name of Leo- 
nine verse. The origin of this name, and the period 
at which it was adopted, are equally unknown. 

During the period while this gradual development 
of rhyme had been going on in the Latin poetry, as 
written by scholars and ecclesiastics, a great event of 
another description had taken place. The Latin lan- 
guage, as spoken by the people, had, in the different 
provinces of the empire, been gradually changing into 
the various x^eo-Latin dialects, which we are accus- 
tomed to speak of as the Romance dialects, repre- 
sented by French, Spanish, , Provencal, Italian, &c. 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 157 

The poetry of all these derivatives from the Latin 
tongue was distinguished by the use of rhyme. This 
rhyme was at first very imperfect, for it appears not 
to have been copied directly from the more finished 
verse of the ecclesiastics, but from a ruder popular 
Latin versification which had prevailed among the 
people, of which we have already given one example 
from a poem by St. Augustine, and of which two or 
three other examples are known, though they are 
rare. One of these is as old as the seventh century, 
and commemorates a victory of Clotaire II. king of 
the Franks over the Saxons in 622 ; it is short 
and rhymes throughout on one rhyme in this man- 
ner: — 



Qui ivit pugnare in gentem Saxonum; 

Quani graviter provenisset missis Saxonurn, 

Si non fuisset inclytus Faro de gente Burgundionum, etc. 

It would appear that little stress of the voice was 
thrown upon the end of the lines, so that the 
rhyme fell but slightly on the ear, which perceived 
chiefly the consonance of the vowels, whether the 
rhyme was double or single, and thus gradually the 
consonants were disregarded, as in the two first lines 
here, where Francorum was considered a perfectly 
good rhyme to Saxonum. This disregard of the con- 
sonants became eventually complete, so that in Latin 
martyrium would rhyme with vocibus, and stans with 
dat. This sort of rhyme, which is termed assonance, is 
that adopted in the earlier Romance poetry which we 
possess, almost invariably; and in that poetry also, as 
in the popular Latin poetry which had preceded it, the 
same rhyme was carried through a great number of 



158 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

consecutive lines, and was then changed for another, 
which was repeated in the same way. One of the 
earliest of these Romance poems known — perhaps the 
earliest — is the Chanson de Roland, which appears 
to be as old as the earlier half of the twelfth century ; 
and an example from it will best explain this sort of 
rhyme. The following lines rhyme on the vowel i 9 
and on the last syllable. 

Tuit li prierent li meillor Sarrazin 
Qu'el faldestoed s'est Marsilies asis. 
Dist l'algalifes, " Mai nos avez baillit, 
Que li Franceis asmastes a ferir," etc. 

In the following lines, the rhyme is on the penul- 
timate and final vowels. 

E Anseis laiset le cheval curre, 
Si vait ferir Turgis de Turteluse ; 
L'escut li freint desus l'oree bucle, 
De sun osberc li derumpit les dubles, 
Del bon espiet el cors li met l'amure ; 
Empeinst le ben, tut le fer li mist ultre, 
Pleine sa hanste el camp mort le tresturnet. 
Co dist Rollans, " Cist colp est de produme." 

This is the imperfect rhyme and the kind of verse in 
which nearly all of the earliest known French poetry 
is written; but in the south of Europe vernacular 
poetry had been brought to greater perfection, and a 
lyric poetry had arisen, with a very elaborate system 
of rhymes, formed perhaps originally upon the church 
chants. This poetry is known to us as existing in 
the ancient literature of Provence, and it was no 
doubt brought thence to be introduced in the northern 
French and Anglo-Norman literature, in which we 
begin to find it after the middle of the twelfth cen- 
tury, and during the following century it became 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 159 

established in English poetry, of which good ex- 
amples will be found in my volume of Lyric Poetry 
of the thirteenth century, edited for the Percy So- 
ciety. I have already intimated that rhyming Latin 
verse was never much in use among the Latin writers 
of the Anglo-Saxon period in this island. Rhyme 
was never, properly speaking, in use in Anglo-Saxon 
poetry ; the only two or three examples known, were 
evidently intended only as ingenious exercises, per- 
haps in imitation of the Latin rhymes, and cannot be 
ascribed to an earlier date than the beginning of the 
eleventh century. In fact, till the twelfth century, 
rhyme belonged to the vernacular poetry only of the 
Romance languages ; it was evidently taken from the 
Latin; and I have shown how in Latin rhyming 
verse originated, and how it became developed very 
slowly and gradually, until it was brought to per- 
fection and into common use at a late period. 

There is, however, apparently one very extraordi- 
nary exception to this rule. The Welsh lay claim to 
a series of vernacular poets, under such names as 
Aneurin, Taliesin, and Merlin, who are asserted to 
have lived in the sixth century, and others belonging 
to ages immediately succeeding, and they show us 
what are asserted to be their genuine compositions, 
and which present, strangely enough, a system of 
perfect rhymes, and of the different forms of versifica- 
tion, exactly like those which, after a long and labo- 
rious course of formation, are only first found in 
French poetry in the twelfth century, This is, cer- 
tainly, a very startling circumstance, and one which 
may well lead us to hesitate in accepting these Welsh 
poems of which I am speaking as authentic. We have 
no evidence whatever of the use of rhyme among 



160 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

the ancient Celts, either in Britain or in Gaul, and 
surely it is utterly inexplicable how, if this perfect 
system of rhyme had existed so generally and pub- 
licly among them, the whole Latin church should have 
remained totally ignorant of it, and should have been 
striving through two or three centuries to invent and 
improve rhyme, when it was all the while to be found 
close beside them in a perfect state of development ! 
For it must be remembered that these Welsh poets 
were Christians, and that they were in continual in- 
tercourse with the Christians of the continent — of the 
Latin church, and might certainly have given a help- 
ing hand to the Latin attempts at rhyme. Nay, more, 
some of these very ecclesiastics on the continent, such 
as St. Gall, Columbanus, and many others, who were 
either making attempts at Latin rhyming verse them- 
selves as an ingenious novelty, or who were at least 
witnessing the attempts of others, were themselves of 
Celtic origin, and ought to have been able to tell 
people that there was nothing new in it. 

Sharon Turner, in his " Vindication of the Genuine- 
ness of the Ancient British Poems," imagines that he 
has found a triumphant answer to any objection to 
the genuineness of the poems in question grounded 
on the fact just stated, when he points to these 
instances of rhyme in the early mediaeval Latin ver- 
sifiers, a plea which might perhaps have deserved 
some consideration if the system of rhyme of the 
supposed primaeval Welsh poetry had been as rude 
and inartificial as that of these Latin poems. But 
this is not the case. We have seen how, in Latin, 
the rhymes came into use in Italy and the south of 
Europe, how they remained for ages rude and inarti- 
ficial, and became only gradually known in the west, 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 161 

until their more perfect development, which can 
hardly be placed earlier than the ninth and tenth cen- 
turies, and how rhyme was adopted in the vernacular 
French, in which it was still further perfected and 
developed during the twelfth and thirteenth centu- 
ries. Now the system of rhyme of the primitive 
Welsh bards, such as Taliesin, and Aneurin, and 
Llywarch Hen, does not resemble that which we 
find scattered sparingly over the Latin metrical compo- 
sitions of the sixth and seventh centuries, but it is an 
evident imitation of the more perfect rhyme of the 
French versification of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, as much so as the vernacular English poetry 
of the same period. Any one who will take the 
trouble to compare the Gododin attributed to Aneu- 
rin, and most of what appear to be the oldest of the 
poems ascribed to Taliesin, with the old French romans 
de geste, cannot fail to be convinced that, in their 
metres and rhymes, the former are imitated from 
the latter. They present exactly the same cha- 
racter of composition, with the same repetitions of 
rhymes through divisions of unequal length. The 
resemblance is far too close to be accidental, and 
would be perfectly inexplicable, if not impossible, if we 
suppose a difference of date of six centuries. But, as 
we go on comparing, we are encountered on all sides 
by resemblances of a still more striking character. 
A poem of Taliesin on the death of Owain, the son of 
Urien Rheged, is composed in the following versifi- 
cation : — 

En aid Owain ap Urien, 
Gobwyllid ei Ren 

Oi Raid. 
Reged Udd ai cudd tromlas, 
Nid oed fas, 

Ei gywyddeid. 



162 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

Another is addressed to Urien Rheged himself, in 
the following metre : — 

Urien Reget, 
Duallovyet 

Y Leuenyd. 
Eur ac Aryant 
Mor eu divant, 

Eu dihenyd. 

Another, which has received a great amount of mys- 
tical interpretation, runs thus : — 

Mon Mad gogei, 
Gwrhyd erfei, 

Menai ei dor. 
Lleweis wirawd, 
Gwin a bragawd, 

Gan frawd esgor. 

Now this is a very common form of verse in different 
metres in the French poetry of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, and no doubt was in use in the 
twelfth. The following is taken from a poem pro- 
bably of the thirteenth century : — 

Ce n'est pas honour ne courteisie, 
Ne gueres le tienk a mestrie 

De vassal, 
Pur une petite bailie, 
De prendre a, nulle rien atye 

De fere mal. 

The following is a sample of an English poem of the 
thirteenth century : — 

At evesong even neh, 
Ydel men ?et he seh, 

Lomen habbe an honde ; 
To hem he sayde an heh, 
That suythe he wes undreh, 

So ydel forte stonde. 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 163 

Who can doubt for a moment that the French 
metres and rhymes were in this case the models of 
the Welsh as well as of the English verses. Mr. 
Nash, in his work on Taliesin, has shown clearly that 
the last of the poems of that poet quoted above was 
really an elegy on an archdeacon of Anglesea, who 
nourished in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. I 
could point out other arrangements of metres and 
rhymes in these supposed early Welsh poems, the 
types of which are equally found in the French and 
English of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
but it is not necessary to multiply examples. If 
these poems are genuine, the bards must indeed have 
been endowed largely with the spirit of prophecy, 
when they wrote in the sixth century in systems of 
verse which were not invented until the twelfth ! 

There is a well-known and frequently quoted 
passage of the " Descriptio Cambrige " of Giraldus 
Cambrensis, relating to the poetry of the Welsh as it 
existed at the close of the twelfth century, for that 
was the date at which the book alluded to was written, 
in which he acknowledges that the Welsh songs were 
then composed in rhyme, but he informs us at the 
same time that the favourite ornamentation of their 
poetry was alliteration, and he speaks of it as re- 
sembling closely the alliteration of the English.* As 
the English example which he gives, — 

God is tog-ether — g-ammen and wisedome, 

is a perfect alliterative couplet, it is clear that Gir- 
aldus knew very well what English and Anglo-Saxon 
alliteration was. The first of his Welsh examples is 

* Girald. Camb. Descrip. p. 889, in Camden's A?iglica, &c. 



164 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

equally perfect, and has both the Anglo-Saxon alli- 
teration and rhythm : — 

Digawn Duw — da j unic. 

His second example is evidently corrupt in the manu- 
scripts, and the alliteration is lost. Both are found 
in old Welsh poems, but as they are evidently popu- 
lar proverbs, it is not necessary to suppose that Gir- 
aldus took them from those particular poems. I 
believe that the Welsh scholars allow that this allitera- 
tion is characteristic of their oldest poems. 

Now I confess that the form of this Welsh allitera- 
tive verse, and the manner in which Giraldus speaks 
of it, lead me to think that it was originally borrowed 
from the Anglo-Saxons. I do not mean to say that 
the Welsh had not a poetry of their own — all rude 
society has, but it changes or takes its forms under 
the influence of outward circumstances, and it was the 
very last class of literature which came to be com- 
mitted to writing. It appears probable that the 
poetry of the Anglo-Saxon minstrels was not com- 
mitted to writing before the tenth and eleventh cen- 
turies; and long before that, if the Anglo-Saxons had 
any strictly historical poetry of an early date, it had 
without doubt perished, or the chroniclers and his- 
torical writers would have made some use of it. 
Such strictly historical poetry was the least common 
in the primitive condition of society, and it was the 
least permanent. The poetry of the Saxon " bards " 
was chiefly mythic in its character, that is, it cele- 
brated either the deeds of the gods from whom the 
whole Teutonic race claimed its descent, or the ex- 
ploits of strictly mythic heroes to whom the regal 
families and the great chiefs traced their pedigree. 

Among the poetry attributed to the supposed early 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 165 

Welsh bards, there 4s much, such as the love for 
riddles and for enigmatical expressions, and for a 
particular class of didactic poetry, which has its close 
resemblance in the Anglo-Saxon literature of the 
tenth and eleventh centuries, and which was I think 
borrowed from it in the same way that much of the 
rest was borrowed from the Anglo-Norman of a later 
date. The Welsh had no doubt abundance of traditions 
and legends as mythic as those of the Anglo-Saxons. 
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they were just 
in that political condition when men look back with 
eagerness to a supposed former glory, and love to 
exaggerate the supposed exploits of their ancestors, 
and when they readily mistake their mythical legends 
for historical ones. This, we know, was rarely done 
by the Anglo-Saxon historical writers, though one 
or two examples occur. I suspect, then, that pre- 
vious to the Norman conquest, the Welsh minstrels 
had borrowed largely from the literature of their 
Anglo-Saxon neighbours, and, among other things, 
had adopted their form of verse ; that afterwards, 
when they came in contact with the Normans, they 
changed their verse taken from the Saxons for that 
now brought over from the continent, except that for 
some time they retained their taste for alliteration 
along with the universal adoption of rhyme. It was, 
in fact, the same process of change which was going 
on contemporaneously in English literature itself, 
where we find in the same manner and for a con- 
siderable period the Saxon alliteration retained and 
joined with the Norman rhyme. 

Mr. D. W. Nash has published a very excellent 
dissertation on the poems of Taliesin,* which I would 

* Taliesin ; or, the Bards and Druids of Britain. By D. W. 
Nash. 8vo. 



166 ON THE ORIGIN OF RHYMES 

strongly recommend to all who feel an interest in the 
investigation of this question. Mr. Nash has pointed 
out frequent allusions in these poems of Taliesin 
which fix the composition of many of them to a 
date not older than the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries. I think that he might have gone further 
than he has gone, for I feel convinced that we have 
no Welsh poetry existing of an older date than the 
twelfth century — when it appears to have begun to be 
committed to writing. The oldest known MS., the 
" Black Book of Caerinarthen," is, I suspect, not older 
than the latter part of the twelfth century.* The 
Welsh appear at that time to have seized upon the 
continental poetry and romance with great eagerness, 
for it is the foundation of a great mass of the mediaeval 
Welsh literature. This is fully apparent to any one 
who has studied the mediaeval literature of Europe in 
general and extensively. I believe, further, that the 
influence of the Norman invasion was felt in the lan- 
guage as well as in the literature, for, from a com- 
parison of the forms of the words, I am satisfied that 
a very large portion of, if not all, the Latin element 
which is found in the Welsh tongue was derived 
directly from Anglo-Norman, which was gradually 
mixing with it in the same way that it was mixing with 
English. For instance, in the formation of the Neo- 
Latin dialects, the final s of Latin words was invariably 
preserved, so that this termination became charac- 
teristic of the nominative cases singular of most of the 
masculines; thus the Latin nullus became nuls, or 

* The antiquity of Welsh MSS., when judged hastily by 
their appearance, is generally much overrated, for the writing 
preserved the character of an earlier date long after it was 
abandoned in England and on the continent. 



AND THE EARLY WELSH POEMS. 167 

nus, in Anglo-Norman, while the objective case would 
be nul, representing nullum, nullo, or nulli, all of 
which are without the final s. So, also, the Latin 
pons, a bridge, became in Anglo-Norman, nominative, 
pons, or ponz, objective pont. This rule was strictly 
preserved during the twelfth century, but after that 
period a considerable change began to take place in 
the forms of Anglo-Norman and French, one of 
which was the abandonment of the old nominative in 
*, x, or z, and the adoption of the objective for the nomi- 
native. I will not on the present occasion attempt to 
explain the reason of this change, but it certainly did 
take place, and from that time the nominative case 
singular would be pont, and not pons, or ponz ; but if 
I found pont as the nominative in a composition of 
the twelfth century, I should at once say that it 
could only be the error of a later copyist. This is 
the case with a very large portion of the nouns in the 
language. Now it is a remarkable circumstance that 
the words in the Latin element of the Welsh lan- 
guage, as far as I have examined the question, 
have generally the Anglo-Norman forms, and in a 
great proportion of them in such forms as were the 
results of a change in the French or Anglo-Norman 
themselves, and which could hardly from any pos- 
sibility have arisen if these words had been adopted 
from the Latin before the sixth century. Therefore, 
when I find in a poem ascribed to Taliesin, and bear- 
ing the title of Kad Goddeu (the Battle of the Trees), 
such a line as this, — 

Bum pont ar trigar, | I have been a bridge for passing over, 

I cannot help coming to the conclusion that, either 
the bard, among his other gifts of prophecy, possessed 



168 ON THE OKIGIN of khymes, etc. 

the knowledge of the grammar of languages which 
had not yet come into existence, or that the line in 
question is a modern composition. It may perhaps 
be alleged that these might have been interpolations 
in the original text ; but this would not be a good 
defence, and the occurrence of this class of words in 
writings pretending to an early date would be suffi- 
cient to raise strong suspicions. But the system of 
versification and rhyme in the poems ascribed to 
Taliesin, Aneurin, Llywarch Hen, and the other 
Welsh poets anterior to the twelfth century, is, I am 
convinced, quite fatal to their character of genuine- 
ness. The objection does not, as Sharon Turner 
seemed to think, consist merely in the use of rhyme, 
but in the use of perfected systems of rhyme which 
belonged to as late a date. I may add, that this is by 
no means the only objection to the genuineness of the 
poetry attributed to the early Welsh bards. 




XXI. 

ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA IN THE 
MIDDLE AGES. 



^ +<pi 



HE standard literature of England contains 
so much that is founded upon mediaeval 
models, or at least that is only thoroughly 
understood and duly felt when we trace 
its forms from mediaeval times, that it is to be re- 
gretted that the history of English literature, as well 
as of the English language, is not more generally 
taught and studied. Every reader of Shakespeare — 
which is equivalent to saying, every one capable of 
reading the English language — must have felt that 
in the drama, as it appears in the writings of our 
great bard, there is something peculiarly national — 
that it is not the drama of France, nor the drama of 
any other European nation as it now exists, and that 
it is much less the drama of Rome or of Greece, 
which latter country is justly considered to have 
given the original models of this class of literature — 
but that it is simply and solely the drama of Eng- 
land. To understand why this is the case, it will be 
necessary to trace the history of the dramatic art 
among our forefathers through many ages. 
II. I 



170 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

Almost all the fine arts derived their origin more 
or less from religious ceremonies and observances. 
The desire to convey through the eye, and thus im- 
press more strongly on the mind, religious myths, 
and the forms and attributes of the deities, gave origin 
to the arts of painting and sculpture ; music, in its 
primeval shape, was but a form of worship, and the 
earliest poetry was employed in praising and celebrat- 
ing the gods and demigods of the rude creed of primi- 
tive ages. The writers of antiquity describe to us the 
actors in the Bacchic ceremonies, collected together 
in a waggon, with painted faces and unpolished 
chants, as presenting under Thespis the first model of 
the noble drama of Greece. The English stage was 
in its origin precisely similar to that of Greece, 
though it went through a course of progress and 
development peculiar to itself. 

It would be to little purpose in a sketch like this 
to enter into the question whether the religious cere- 
monies of the Teutonic nations were accompanied 
with any kind of pantomimical exhibitions, and 
whether these formed any part of the numerous 
popular observances and superstitions which were 
borrowed from them in the earlier ages of Christianity 
in the West. This we know, that at a comparatively 
early period some of the great festivals of the Church 
were often attended with such scenic representations. 
Thus, on a saint's day, the choral boys, or the younger 
clergy, would act one or more of the miracles of that 
saint ; and on a particular festival of the Church they 
would represent those particular incidents of Gospel 
history which that festival was instituted to com- 
memorate. These performances appear at first to 
have been mere dumb show, and the first step towards 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 171 

giving them a more perfect dramatic form was the 
putting in the mouths of the actors a few appropriate 
texts of Scripture, in Latin, which were probably 
chanted. The ingenuity of the clergy was soon em- 
ployed in composing brief dialogues, which were still 
in Latin, although at times they aspired to somewhat 
of a poetic form, and were at least embellished with 
rhyme. In regard to the great majority of those who 
witnessed such representations, these Latin dialogues 
must have been no better than dumb show, and this 
seems to have been felt by the performers. Another 
innovation was therefore made, and the authors of 
these rude attempts at dramatic composition contrived 
to intersperse with their Latin dialogue a few sen- 
tences here and there — a proverb, or the burden of a 
song, or even a song itself — in more popular phrase- 
ology, and in the vernacular tongue. We have ex- 
amples of this practice in German and in French, and 
if w.e have it not in English, it is because, at the 
period when it prevailed, French, or one form of it 
which we call Anglo-Norman, was the only tongue 
which was acknowledged in this country by those 
who had the composition of such plays. 

A considerable number of these Latin, or princi- 
pally Latin, dramas are preserved in manuscripts, 
belonging nearly all to the twelfth century, which 
we must consider as the first period of the mediaeval 
stage. The theatre of the Romans had been totally 
lost in the great struggle under which the western 
empire had sunk, and the very words which expressed 
it seem to have been forgotten. The popular term 
which the clergy gave to their performances was the 
Latin word Indus — in mediaeval French it was supplied 
by the wordjeu — both equivalent to the English word 



172 ON THE HISTOEY OF THE DRAMA 

play, the sense of which, as applied to a dramatic per- 
formance, is derived from the mediaeval practice. 
Other names were given to them, having reference 
more particularly to the subjects represented; they 
were called Miracula, or Miracles, when their sub- 
jects were taken from the legends of the saints ; and 
Mysteries, when they were derived from the Old or 
New Testament, and embodied what were considered 
the mysteries of the faith. These latter distinctive 
titles have survived the performances themselves, and 
writers on dramatic history still usually speak of 
them as Mysteries, or Miracle-jrtays. 

Hitherto the scene of these performances was the 
interior of the church, and the performances them- 
selves, as weii as the irreverence and even profana- 
tion to which they naturally led, soon excited scandal 
among the stricter ecclesiastics, Accordingly, during 
the thirteenth century, we find them provoking the 
remonstrances of the clergy, and proscribed by canons 
and decrees of ecclesiastical synods. This censure 
gradually produced its effect, and after the beginning 
of the fourteenth century we hear little more of this 
class of dramatic performances in churches. The ex- 
hibition, however, had no doubt been profitable as 
well as entertaining, and when dismissed from the 
ecclesiastical body it was eagerly seized upon by the 
secular corporations. The guilds and trading com- 
panies now became the great theatrical managers of 
the middle ages, and in their hands the religious 
drama became further developed. In the first place, 
it was necessary that the dialogue should be carried 
on entirely in the vulgar tongue, and in doing this 
the composers consulted the popular taste in filling 
up the bare outlines of their predecessors, and adding 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 173 

matter of various sorts that was likely to draw an 
audience. It was also necessary to produce a new 
stage, and this was done by raising a scaffold upon 
wheels, which offered the further advantage of loco- 
motion, so that the performers could change their 
audience without breaking up their arrangements. 
To this arrangement, which reminds us strongly of 
the actors of Thespis in their waggons, people gave 
the popular title of a 'pageant — a word of very un- 
certain derivation, but which we find subsequently 
in general use to denote stage machinery of all kinds. 
We know, from an Anglo-Norman writer of the 
thirteenth century, that this system of pageantry was 
already in practice at that period ; and it is in the 
century following that we begin to meet with these 
religious dramas (religious, as far as the subject went) 
in their more popular and perfect form. Of the 
great English collections which have been preserved, 
two, the Towneley and the Chester Mysteries, were 
probably composed about the end of the fourteenth 
century, or early in the fifteenth. The rigid moralists 
and disciplinarians of the Church seem at all times to 
have set their faces against such exhibitions ; and the 
Wycliffite reformers of the fourteenth century de- 
claimed against them with considerable vehemence ; 
as zealously, indeed, as any of the preachers against 
the immorality of the stage in modern times. One 
of these reformers has left us a discourse against the 
Miracle-plays, which is preserved in a volume of 
Wyclifnte sermons of the end of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and gives us a curious idea of the prevalence 
and popularity of such performances at that time. 
The writer pleads the sinfulness of turning God's 
deeds and miracles into jest and game, and alleges, 



174 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

with reason, that they were calculated to destroy our 
reverence for holy things, and to weaken people's be- 
lief; and he combats the arguments urged in their 
favour, that they were intended to promote the wor- 
ship of God, and make people familiar with sacred 
subjects. The preaching of the Wycliffites, however, 
appears to have had no effect, and the Mysteries and 
Miracle-plays continued to be extremely popular 
during the whole of the following century, and until 
after the Reformation. 

In the fifteenth century we become intimately ac- 
quainted with this remarkable class of dramatic litera- 
ture, as it existed at that time in England, from the 
circumstance that several collections of Mysteries 
have been preserved, three of which, the Chester, 
Coventry, and Towneley collections, are now printed ; 
that the various items of expense connected with the 
getting up of the plays have been handed down to us 
in the books of certain corporations ; and that nearly 
contemporary writers have left us notices of the 
manner in which they were performed. The most 
valuable of all the corporation books for this purpose 
are those of the trade guilds, or companies, at Coven- 
try, copious extracts from which were published by 
Mr. Sharp, in a privately printed volume on the 
Coventry Mysteries. We learn from these, and 
from the plays themselves, that each guild had its 
particular play and its own players, so that the whole 
series of plays, including the principal events of the 
Old and New Testament, beginning with the creation 
and ending with doomsday, were distributed among 
these corporate bodies. The period of performance 
was the feast of Corpus Christi, and, as far as the per- 
formers were concerned, it was evidently attended 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 175 

with much personal enjoyment, and an unusual share 
of eating and drinking : the latter appears generally 
to predominate. In the accounts for the year 1490, 
we find that on one of the days of rehearsal the actors 
consumed nine gallons of ale to the somewhat small 
proportion of seven pennyworth of bread, and that on 
the same day their dinner and supper consisted of two 
ribs of beef and a goose. During the performance, 
as the pageant moved along, they seem to have 
stopped to drink at the door of every tavern, for we 
find in the accounts of the expenses of the day such 
entries as — " Drink to the players between the play 
times, 13 d ," and " Payd for the players drynkyng at 
the Swanne dore, ij s ' viij d " ; " and " Item, spent at 
tavern," occurs frequently. Besides these indul- 
gences, the players received wages, which, comparing 
the value of money then with its value now, were 
high enough to show us that the qualifications of a 
performer were not rated low, and that they must 
have thought it necessary to study their parts with 
care. The following entry, in which it will be ob- 
served that the names of the characters are given and 
not those of the actors, makes us acquainted with the 
wages of the players of the Smiths' Company, at 
Coventry, upon Corpus Christi Day, 1490. It will 
be remembered that God here means Jesus Christ : — 

Payments of ther Wages of Corpus Christi Day. 
Imprimis, to God, ij s ' 
Item, to Cayphas, iij s> iiij d - 
Item, to Heroude, iij s ' iiij d ' 
Item, to Pilatteis wyffe, ij s * 
Item, to the bedull, iiij d - 
Item, to one of the knights, ij s " 
Item, to the devyll and to Judas, xviij d- 
Item, to Petur and Malkus, xvj dl 



176 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

Item, to Anna,- ij s * ij d ' 
Item, to Pilatte, iiij s ' 
Item, to Pilatteis sonne, iiij d- 
Item, to another knighte, ij Sl Summa, xxviij s ' 
The mynstrell, xiiij d- 

Under other dates, there are sometimes entries of 
payments of subordinate performers, of which I am 
tempted to give one, because it relates to the same 
play as the payments just mentioned, and because 
the duties performed by this particular player are 
peculiar. It is this : — 

p d to Fawston for hangyng Judas, iiij d * 
p d to Fawston for coc-croying, iiij d - 

The dresses of the characters appear in some cases 
to have been expensive, and the continual entries of 
payments for mending or renewing them give us a 
tolerable idea of their character ; but these entries are 
often made with a naivete which shocks our notions of 
propriety, and show us that the Wycliffite preachers 
were right in urging that the tendency of such per- 
formances was rather to spread a feeling of irreverence 
for things sacred, than to promote religious feeling. 
Thus we have frequently such items as — " Item, 
payd for the spret (spirit) of Gods cote, ij s ." We 
learn from these entries that God's coat was of 
leather, painted and gilt, and that he had a wig of 
false hair, also gilt. Caiaphas and Annas were robed 
as bishops. Herod appears to have had a mask, 
which, from the allusions to his character, had pro- 
bably a ferocious look : there are many payments for 
mending and painting his head, and he had a helmet 
and crest, which appear to have been much orna- 
mented. He had a gown of satin and blue buckram, 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 177 

and carried a sceptre. Pilate, to judge by his wages, 
was the most important personage in this pageant, 
yet the principal expenses into which he led the com- 
pany related to the mending of his hat. His son is 
comparatively ill paid for his acting, as he receives in 
wages but fourpence; and he seems to have been 
employed merely to carry some of the attributes of 
the father, for the payments relating to him regard 
chiefly the repairs of his hat and of a poll-axe and 
sceptre. Pilate's wife was a more important person- 
age, as she figures in a dream wherein she was ad- 
monished to warn her husband as to his proceedings 
with regard to the Saviour. - She was named in the 
mediaeval legend Dame Procula, and, as she was 
dressed in a gown of the first fashion, it seems to have 
been customary to borrow one for the occasion from 
the most stylish-dressing dame in the town. We 
have an entry to the following effect: "Item, to re- 
ward to Maisturres Grymesby for lendyng of her 
geir ffor Pylats wyfe, xij d ." The devil seems to 
have been dressed in leather ; his head required often 
mending and painting ; fourpence is on one occasion 
paid for a staff for him, and there are continual charges 
for painting his club. It is hardly worth our labour 
to speak in detail of the dresses of the minor charac- 
ters ; it may simply be remarked that the canvas of 
Juclas's coat cost two shillings, and that tenpence 
was paid for making it ; that Peter had a wig, and 
apparently a long beard; and that the beadle was 
dressed in a jacket and hood. 

The stage, as I have already stated, was raised 
upon wheels, and it consisted of one, two, and some- 
times of three floors, representing respectively heaven, 
earth, and the infernal regions. The contrivances for 

I 2 



178 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

producing stage effect seem to have been extremely 
ingenious, and sometimes complicated. The records 
we have been quoting throw little light on this part 
of the subject, but we learn more from the marginal 
stage-directions in some of the manuscripts of French 
mysteries of the same date. Thus, in the fall of 
Lucifer, it is directed in the margin of one of these 
that " Lucifer and his angels are now to be let down 
by means of a wheel secretly contrived to work upon 
a screw pivot." In the performance of the Creation, 
when God separates light from darkness, the stage 
direction is, " Now a painted cloth is to be exhibited, 
one-half black, and the other half white ! " When 
God separates the waters, " Now must be shown, as 
it were, a sea, which has previously been covered, 
and fishes in it." And when God creates the fowls, 
the stage direction is, " Now must some one secretly 
let fly little birds into the air, and place on the stage 
swans, geese, ducks, cocks, hens, with the most un- 
common animals that can be obtained." In one of 
the Coventry books we have the entry, " Item, p d 
for starche to make the storme in the pagente, vj d ." 
There are some amusing entries relating to stage 
machinery in the same books, as, for example : — 

Item, payd for mendyng hell mowthe, ij d> 
Item, payd for payntyng of hellmought, iij d * 
Item, payd for makynge of hell mothe new, xxj d * 

And again : — 

Item, payd for keepyng of fyer at hell mothe, iiij d * 

I have somewhere read that on one occasion the ne- 
cessity of making " hell mouth " new arose from an 
accident in the management of this fire, which in- 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 179 

volved the infernal regions in a general conflagration. 
We have in these same books the commemoration of 
an equally serious and more deliberate case of incen- 
diarism : "Item, payd for settyng the world of fyer, 

It is curious that, when we compare that part of 
the collection preserved and printed as the Coventry 
Mysteries with the entries in the books of the Smiths' 
Company relating to their pageant, we see at once 
that it could not be the same play they acted. In 
fact, the substance of their play is broken into one or 
two smaller ones. These, however, are near enough 
in subject to allow of a brief analysis in illustration of 
the characters as described in the books, and of the 
general plan of these singular compositions. The 
scene introduces the Saviour leading his favourite 
disciples to the Mount of Olives, and at first both the 
dialogue and acting are a mere paraphrase of the 
Gospel narrative. At length he awakens his dis- 
ciples, and tells them that his time was come, and 
that Judas was at hand to betray him. " Here," 
says the stage direction, " Jesus with his disciples 
goeth into the place, and there shall come in about 
ten persons well beseen in white harness and brigan- 
dines, and some disguised in other garments, with 
swords, glaives, and other strange weapons, as cres- 
sets with fire, and lanterns and torches light; and 
Judas foremost of all, conveying them to Jesus by 
countenance." The Saviour asks them what they 
seek, and they reply, " Jesus of Nazareth." On his 
declaring that he is the man, they all fall to the 
ground, and only rise again at his bidding. After 
some further contention, Judas kisses Christ, and 
then his companions rush upon him. It is at this 



180 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

moment that Peter, moved by his zeal, strikes Mal- 
chus with his sword, and cuts off his ear; which 
Christ immediately heals by a miracle, and expostu- 
lates with Peter for using violence in his cause. The 
Jews now seize upon Christ, and lead him away, with 
a good deal of vulgar abuse and ribaldry, which was 
calculated for the taste of the mob. Another scene 
now opens, in which Herod appears sitting upon his 
throne, surrounded by his doctors, or courtiers, who 
greet him with the most abject flattery. When they 
have concluded, he addresses the audience in a style 
of exaggerated pomposity, which is best described by 
Shakespeare's phrase of out-Heroding Herod. Herod 
may be truly said to swear like a Turk, for he has 
nothing in his mouth but Mahom, or Mahomet. He 
boasts of being the greatest and most powerful per- 
sonage in the world, talks of everybody as his slaves, 
and declares that if any one dares to speak without 
his orders he would involve them in immediate and 
immense destruction. This impotent threatening 
appears to have been chiefly addressed to the audience, 
and must, no doubt, have created great amusement. 
We know from Chaucer that it was a great object of 
ambition to be thought worthy and capable of per- 
forming the part of Herod in the Mysteries. Herod 
gives orders to his officers to go and effect the capture 
of Jesus. Another scene introduces to us the two 
priests, Caiaphas and Annas, seated in state, and a 
messenger arrives with tidings of the capture of the 
Saviour, and gives an account of the whole trans- 
action. Soon afterwards Christ is led in by the 
Jews, and witnesses are heard against him, and he is 
reviled and beaten. One of the maid-servants accuses 
Peter of being one of the disciples, which he denies, 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 181 

and the cock crows (Mr. Fawston's part). This is 
repeated^ and then Peter weeps, and goes out, and 
makes his lament. Caiaphas and Annas, meanwhile, 
despatch a messenger to Pilate, to require his pre- 
sence at the " Moot-Hall," on account of " a great 
matter " that required speed. Judas, in the mean 
time, is seized with repentance, and, returning to 
Caiaphas and Annas, offers back the money for which 
he had sold his Redeemer. They refuse it with 
bitter jeers, and, to use the words of the stage direc- 
tions, (i then Judas casteth down the money, and 
goeth and hangeth himself." We have seen in the 
books of the Smiths' Company that one of the sub- 
ordinate actors assisted the traitor in this last act of 
self-retributive justice. Next day, in consequence of 
the summons, Pilate takes his seat in the " Moot- 
Hall," and Jesus is brought before him for trial, 
Caiaphas and Annas acting as accusers. After hear- 
ing all the witnesses, Pilate is of opinion that no 
crime is proved, and is desirous of setting Jesus at 
liberty ; but this is opposed by the Jews, and after 
much contention on the subject, a quibble is raised 
about jurisdiction, and the prisoner is passed over to 
king Herod. Herod storms and rages considerably, 
and causes his victim to be scourged and tormented, 
and then he sends him back to Pilate with full autho- 
rity to condemn him to death. Pilate was, therefore, 
considered as a subordinate personage to king Herod. 
Meanwhile a new scene has begun. " Here entereth 
Satan into the place, in the most horrible wise." 
Satan outdoes Herod in his profane swearing and 
boasting, and exults over what he foresees will be the 
fate of Christ, knowing that he would descend to 
hell, and believing that he would remain there under 






182 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

his subjection. In his joy, he calls to hell to prepare 
for his reception : — 

Helle ! helle ! make redy, for here xal come a gest, 
Hedyr xal come Jhesus that is clepyd Goddys sone, 
And he xal ben here be the oure of none, 
And with the here he xal wone, 
And han ful shrewyd rest. 

The subordinate fiends, however, appear to have had 
more shrewdness than their master, and one of them 
suggests that it would be better to keep such a guest 
away. He says, addressing himself to Satan : — 

Out upon the ! we conjure the, 
That nevyr in helle we may hym se ; 
For and he onys in helle be, 
He xal oure power brest ! 

An entirely new light now breaks upon Satan's mind, 
and, in his alarm at the destruction which threatens 
his own power, he determines to prevent the Saviour 
from being put to death. He resolves, therefore, to 
work upon the fears of Pilate's wife :— - 

To Pylatys wyff I wele now go, 
And sche is aslepe a bed ful fast, 

And byd here withowtyn wordys mo, 
To Pylat that sche send in hast. 

" Here," says the stage direction, " shall the devil 
go to Pilate's wife, the curtain drawn as she lieth in 
bed ; and he shall make no din ; but she shall, soon 
after that he is come in, make a e rewly ' noise, com- 
ing and running off the scaffold, and her shirt and her 
kirtle in her hand, and she shall come before Pilate 
like a mad woman, saying thus : — 

Pylat, I charge the that thou take hede ! 
Deme not Jhesu, but be his frende ! 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 183 

Gyf thou jewge hym to be dede, 

Thou art dampnyd withowtyn ende!" 

And she goes on to tell her vision ; in consequence 
of which Pilate determines to have nothing to do 
with the persecution of Jesus, but, after a vain 
attempt to persuade the Jews to set him at liberty, 
he returns him back upon their hands. This seems 
to have completed the Mystery performed by the 
Smiths' Company. When it was concluded, the 
stage, or pageant, on which it was performed, moved 
forward upon its wheels, and proceeded, no doubt, to 
recommence in another part of the town, while the 
next stage in order took its place, and another set of 
performers acted the Mystery which came next in 
succession. 

The play I have thus briefly described was one of 
those in which the Scriptural story was least embel- 
lished with extraneous incidents. The authors of 
these compositions, however, were not without rea- 
son charged by the moralists with seeking mainly to 
cater to the taste of the vulgar populace, to do which 
they found it necessary to introduce comic scenes and 
burlesque, or at least droll characters. This was 
effected most frequently by giving the humorous 
parts to some of the lower personages who belonged 
to the plot itself; but in some cases personages are 
introduced purposely as humorous characters, who 
had otherwise no claim to a place in the story. Thus, 
in the play of Cain and Abel, in the Towneley col- 
lection, an ill-conditioned servant is given to Cain, 
and the disputes between him and his master are full 
of coarse humour. In the play of Noah's Flood, the 
wife of Noah, instead of obeying the call of her hus- 
band to enter the ark, proceeds at the last moment to 



184 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

the tavern to join her gossips, to the great annoyance 
of the rest of the family, who are eager to get afloat ; 
they remain drinking, gossiping, and singing, until 
the danger becomes imminent ; and, after much mu- 
tual abuse, Xoah beats his wife soundly, or, accord- 
ing to another version, Noah himself is the van- 
quished. The play of the Shepherds, in every col- 
lection, gives room for the introduction of mirthful 
pictures of rustic life. Even the Virgin's conception 
is made a subject for ribaldry; and in the Coventry 
collection we have a mystery, or play, on the subject 
of her pretended trial. It opens with the appear- 
ance of the somnour, who reads a long list of offenders 
that appear in his book ; then come two " detractors," 
who repeat certain scandalous stories relating to 
Joseph and Mary, upon the strength of which they 
are summoned to appear before the ecclesiastical 
court. They are accordingly put upon their trial, 
and Ave have a broad picture of the proceedings in 
such a case, which would be worthy to employ the 
pencil of a Rowlandson. In the play of the Slaugh- 
ter of the Innocents, a laughable scene was always 
furnished in a skirmish between the slaughterers and 
the mothers of the victims, who are made to indulge 
to a considerable degree in what would now be called 
"Billingsgate" language. In the Coventry collec- 
tion, the Woman taken in Adultery is also made the 
subject of a good deal of merriment. Among the 
comic characters in these plays, we must not forget 
the executioners, or, as they are termed here, the tor- 
mentors, who are especially distinguished for their 
drollery ; and the various acts of the passion, the 
scornful treatment, the scourging, and the crucifixion 
of the Saviour, must have kept the audience in a roar 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 185 

of laughter. Lastly, one of the merriest exhibitions 
in the whole course was Doomsday, or the Day of 
Judgment, in which all those individuals who are 
supposed to have given offence or scandal on earth 
are exposed to popular satire, and in very popular 
language. The miller, who stole his share of the 
corn which was brought to his mill, and the ale-wife, 
who sold short measure, were among the greatest 
persecutors of the lower orders during the middle 
ages, and are here held up to the bitterest scorn ; and 
the people of fashion, who it was pretended spent on 
fine clothes the money which ought to have gone to 
the poor, were not spared. It may be remarked, 
that the gross language which in these plays is put 
in the mouths of women as well as of men, gives us 
but a low opinion of the delicacy of manners among 
our forefathers of the fifteenth century. 

The same humorous scenes, or episodes, are found 
in the French Mysteries, where they exhibit usually 
more originality of conception. The characters, too, 
are here more frequently extraneous, or at least un- 
necessary, to the plot. In one of the earliest of these, 
the play of St. Nicholas, by Jean Boclel, the merri- 
ment was produced by a vulgar scene between a party 
of gamblers in a tavern. In the Miracle-plays, which 
were more abundant in French than in English, 
thieves, or persons of the lower classes of society in 
towns, or peasants in the country, or beggars and 
other vagrants, are introduced for the purpose of 
humorous scenes of this description. In one of these, 
which has for its subject the life and miracles of St. 
Fiacre, the humorous scene is introduced in the form 
of an interlude, and is called a farce — cy est interpose 
unefarsse. This farce consists of five personages, a 



186 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

brigand or robber, a peasant, a sergeant, and the 
wives of the two latter. The brigand appears first 
on the stage, and meeting with the peasant, inquires 
of him the way to St. Omer. The peasant retorts in 
the style of clownishness which it was then fashion- 
able to ascribe to every one who was born a " vilan," 
or serf, or who was descended of such servile blood. 
The robber, offended, but putting the most charitable 
construction on the first offence, repeats his question, 
and that with sufficient politeness, but he meets with 
a second rebuff, more offensive even than the first. 
Finding him thus uncourteous, he avenges himself 
by robbing the peasant of a capon ; but in this con- 
juncture the sergeant comes up, interposes, and at- 
tempts to recapture the capon, and, in the struggle, 
the brigand strikes him a blow which fractures his 
arm. The brigand escapes, and his two antagonists 
quit the scene for a moment, while their wives come 
forward to occupy it. The peasant's wife informs 
the sergeant's wife of the injury which her hus- 
band has sustained, and the latter lady rejoices at an 
accident which she thinks has deprived him of the 
power of beating her. In all these scenes the women 
are made the object of broadest satire, and the picture 
of married life is not flattering to the domestic cha- 
racter of our forefathers. The two wives adjourn to 
a tavern, where they call for wine, and make merry, 
their conversation turning chiefly on the defects of 
their husbands, who, however, eventually return upon 
the stage, and give them practical evidence that they 
are neither of them disabled. 

This is one of the earliest instances of the applica- 
tion to these scenes of the word Farce, derived from 
an old French verb farcer, to make merry, and there- 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 187 

fore signifying a drollery or merriment. In the 
Towneley Mysteries there is a second play of the 
Shepherds, the plot of which is a perfect farce, and 
has as little to do with the subject of the Mystery 
itself as the French farce just described with the story 
of St. Fiacre. A party of shepherds meet on the 
moors, where their sheep-walks lie, and enter into 
conversation on the evil times in which they live, 
their own miserable condition, and the inclemency of 
the weather. In the midst of it enters an individual 
of very equivocal character, who goes by the popular 
name of Mak, and who joins in the familiar discourse, 
and remains with them till they all compose them- 
selves to sleep, it being night. Mak then rises, picks 
out the fattest sheep in the flock, and carries it home 
to his wife. They consult on the best means of con- 
cealing their booty, and, at the wife's suggestion, they 
put it in the cradle, and she lays herself beside it, 
pretending to be just delivered of a child. At early 
dawn the shepherds awake, visit their flocks, and soon 
discover that a robbery has been committed. Their 
suspicion at once falls upon Mak, and they trace him 
to his house, where the various subterfuges of the 
offender and his worthy consort, and the final dis- 
covery of the stolen sheep, are represented in the 
broadest style of caricature, which is heightened by 
the pointed allusions to contemporary manners, and 
even to local circumstances and events. While the 
shepherds are rejoicing over the recovery of their lost 
property, an angel suddenly enters on the stage, and 
announces the birth of the Redeemer, and the play of 
the Mystery goes on as usual. Such are the scenes 
to which the term farce was first applied. 

In France, these farces began to be separated from 



188 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DEAMA 

the Mysteries in the course of the fifteenth century, 
a circumstance which arose partly from the existence 
in that country of certain joyous societies or clubs. 
One of the oldest of these societies was that of the 
clerks of the Bazoche, or lawyers' clerks of the Palace 
of Justice, who had their president, a sort of king of 
misrule, and, among other ceremonies, performed 
drolleries of the kind I have been describing. This 
society had existed from the fourteenth century. 
Early in the reign of Charles VI, that is, about the 
end of the fourteenth century, there was formed at 
Paris another society of young people of education 
and mirthful disposition, who took the name of Enfans 
sans Souci (or Careless Boys), and chose a chief, to 
whom they gave the title of Prince des Sots (the 
Prince of Sots, or Fools.) While the Bazochians, as 
the others called themselves, performed their farces, 
the Enfans sans Souci got up a sort of dramatic satires, 
which they called Sotties, which had sufficient ana- 
logy with the others to excite considerable jealousy, 
for it appears that each had obtained a privilege for 
the sole performance of their peculiar representations. 
The jealousy between them was finally appeased by 
a sort of treaty, whereby the Bazochians gave their 
rivals the permission to perform farces, and the En- 
fans sans Souci allowed the Bazochians to perform 
softies. The Bazochians, meanwhile, had invented a 
new class of dramatic compositions, which they called 
Moralities, and in which they sometimes introduced 
real personages, and at others allegorical personages, 
such as Good Advice, Instruction, Discipline, Luxury, 
&c. These various productions, especially the farces, 
soon became extremely popular in France, and great 
numbers of them were printed in the earlier part of 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 189 

the sixteenth century, and many of them are pre- 
served, though they are regarded among the rare 
productions of the popular literature of the age, and 
fetch high prices among collectors. The character 
of these farces was entirely identical with the humo- 
rous scenes which had been introduced into the Mys- 
teries, and they were equally barren of invention. A 
popular story, an ancient fable, a contemporary ad- 
venture — anything of this kind served for a plot. 
Many of them are mere tavern scenes ; others expose 
family quarrels and domestic mishaps. The adven- 
tures of two rogues, one of whom steals a tart from a 
pastrycook, while the other is caught in the attempt 
to follow his example, are the subject of one farce. 
In another, the wives, dissatisfied with their hus- 
bands, because they were growing too old for them, 
discover a method of making them young again. 
Sometimes the scene is laid in a court of law. But 
the most common subjects are love intrigues, and 
these, as well as the general character of these pieces, 
speak little for the morality of the age in which they 
were composed. In one of these farces, the wife 
sends her good man to the tavern to fetch wine, while 
she enjoys the company of her amour eux ; and the 
repeated return of the husband to ask some frivolous 
question relating to his errand causes many disagree- 
able interruptions to the confidences of the lovers, in 
whicli the mirth of the piece consists. The Sotties 
and Moralities were more fanciful and extravagant in 
their plan, but they always combined more or less of 
satire on the character and condition of the age. The 
title of one of these pieces will be sufficient to give a 
notion of their general character; it is, "A new 
Morality of the Children of Now-a-days (Mainte- 



190 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

nant), who are the scholars of Once-good (Jahieri), 
who shows them how to play at cards and at dice, 
and to entertain Luxury, whereby one comes to 
Shame (Honte), and from Shame to Despair (Deses- 
poi?-), and from Despair to the gibbet of Perdition, 
and then turns himself to Good-doing." All these 
personifications, Now-a-days, Once-good, Luxury, 
Shame, Despair, Perdition, and Good-doing, are per- 
sonages in the play. This arbitrary personification 
is sometimes carried to an extraordinary length. The 
three personages in one of these Moralities are Every- 
thing ( Tout), Nothing (Rieri), and Everybody ( Chas- 
curi). The idea of personifying Nothing on the stage 
is certainly ingenious, and could hardly have entered 
the head of anybody but one of the Enfans sans 
Souci. 

For some reason or other, the Moralities and Sot- 
ties found more imitators in England (when at the 
beginning of the sixteenth century these compositions 
were introduced here) than the farces. Perhaps this 
arose in a great measure from the general preoccupa- 
tion of people's minds with the religious and social 
revolution which was then in progress, and the apt- 
ness of a morality or a sottie for conveying instruc- 
tion or reproof. The fashion for this class of dramatic 
compositions did not, however, last very long in this 
country, and, as the Mysteries also went out of re- 
pute at the time of the Reformation, their place was 
supplied gradually by a new class of plays. The 
reformers saw at once the advantage which might be 
taken of the stage in spreading in a popular form 
their principles and opinions, although they were 
shocked by the irreverence and profanity of the re- 
presentations which had previously occupied it, and 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 191 

they introduced in place of these, plays in which were 
acted by personages histories of different kinds which 
illustrated the crimes and evils of the Papal govern- 
ment. Such was the play of " King John," by the 
celebrated bishop Bale, and other similar composi- 
tions might be mentioned. These, however, were 
heavy and dull, and they wanted that principal ele- 
ment of popularity — the comic scenes — which had 
been the great support of the Mysteries. But the 
taste for dramatic performances was now so strongly 
established, that, as these disappeared from the stage, 
they were succeeded by plays which differed from 
them only in subject, and which differed from the 
farces in the much greater extent of their outline. 
They also formed a feature of the new and more mas- 
culine character of the literature of the age. It was, 
however, nothing more than the Mysteries enlarged, 
and their subjects changed ; for the new playwrights 
only took stories from profane history, or from ro- 
mance, or from the narratives of the story-tellers, 
and arranged them so as to be represented by per- 
sonages, and they followed so closely the old plan 
that they introduced into these histories and stories 
the same sort of comic scenes, and in the same man- 
ner, which, indeed, had been preserved in the Sotties 
and Moralities, where, in consequence of these comic 
scenes being given ordinarily, as in the Mysteries, to 
the more vicious or the more foolish of the personages 
of the piece, these characters were termed, techni- 
cally, the Vices, or the Fools of the play. The Mo- 
ralities themselves, which in England took the more 
scholastic title of Interludes, which had, indeed, been 
sometimes given in the previous period to the Mys- 
teries, gradually ran into this new form of composi- 



192 ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRAMA 

tion. The struggle between the Interlude, or Mora- 
lity, and the new class of drama, was going on during 
the earlier part of the reign of Elizabeth ; and al- 
though several attempts had already been made, the 
latter was not brought to its perfect form until the 
middle of her reign. Soon after that period it was 
raised to its most glorious and elevated point by the 
genius of Shakespeare. But even in Shakespeare him- 
self, we still see the influence of the old mediaeval 
forms, the boldness of the personification, the care- 
lessness of the dramatic unities, the reckless ana- 
chronisms, and, especially, the interweaving of the 
favourite comic scenes with the most serious and 
even tragical plots— those characteristics, indeed, 
which the foreign critics of Shakespeare have so often 
misunderstood. It may be added, that the old Mys- 
teries were still performed to the lower classes in a 
debased form by mountebanks in booths at fairs, 
though they had lost all their former importance ; the 
memory of which, however, was still preserved in the 
use of the term a play, a farce, &c, and in such phrases 
as to play, to bring on the stage, and the like, which 
we still preserve. 

My sketch of the history of the English drama 
ends with the close of the mediaeval period ; but we 
may cast a glance at what was going on in the lite- 
rature of neighbouring countries while it was here 
experiencing this wonderful development. In Ger- 
many, the same kind of development was showing 
itself more feebly, and there was there, contemporary 
with Shakespeare, a drama which differed from his 
mainly in its want of energy and vitality. In fact, it did 
not live long. In France, the development itself was 
wanting. The Moralities and other plays of that 



IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



193 



class gradually became obsolete, and bad no succes- 
sors but the mere routine of masques and court 
pageantry. Our neighbours can hardly be said to 
have possessed a stage of their own, until, in the fol- 
lowing century, they formed one upon the model of 
the ancients, which was formal and cold ; and though 
France has since had her great and perfect dramatists, 
she cannot be said to possess, like England, a national 
drama, which has grown up and firmly rooted itself 
in the genius of the people, and the first seed of which, 
as I before observed, was sown in the Mysteries of 
the middle ages. 




II. 




XXII. 
ON THE LITERATURE OF THE TROBADOURS. 

S the vast fabric of the empire of the 
Caesars crumbled to pieces before the in- 
roads of successive invaders, the two 
principles of civilization and barbarism 
were brought face to face, and, while the latter gained 
the physical victory, the moral superiority of the 
former was soon felt far beyond the limits of Roman 
provinces. In the general fusion of races, which 
immediately followed, the degree of social refinement 
depended upon the proportion of the Roman element 
of civilization, and was, therefore, greater as it ap- 
proached near the seat of the Roman power : it was 
marked by the general adoption of the language 
of the conquered, derived immediately from Rome. 
The ISTeo-Latin dialects, thus formed, prevailed 
throughout Italy, the Spanish peninsula, and Gaul. 
Beyond these limits, towards the west and north, where 
the various Teutonic dialects held undisputed sway, 
society presented a harsher and less refined tone, but 
in the sequel, perhaps, a more healthy one. Singu- 
larly enough, this harsher spirit got possession of the 
Church, which, during the middle ages, exhibited 
almost universally a feeling hostile to civilization. 



LITERATURE OF THE TROBADOTJRS. 195 

It was amid the beautiful scenery, and beneath the 
mild climate, of the Roman provinces of Narbona, 
opening upon the Mediterranean sea to the south, 
between the Alps and the Pyrenees, and known in 
subsequent ages by the general appellation of Pro- 
vence, that the remains of Roman refinement seem 
to have held their ground longest, amid the general 
wreck that surrounded them. It was there that the 
language preserved with least change the forms of its 
Roman prototype ; there, still, are found many of the 
noblest monuments of Roman art; and there was 
long cherished that unyielding hostility to the bar- 
barised form of Romish Christianity, which caused it 
to be regarded by the medieval Church as a mere 
nest of pestilential heresy. There, too, existed a 
literature strongly distinguished from that of the 
cloister in an age when the coarse asceticism of the 
monastery appeared everywhere to have chilled the 
hearts of those who professed to hold the genial 
humanising faith of the Saviour. 

In the decline of the Roman power, the greater 
portion of this district was occupied by the Visigoths; 
of all the Teutonic tribes, the most apt for civilization, 
and the one which most readily adopted the Roman 
manners. The fourth in succession of their chiefs, 
the first Theodoric, lent his arm successfully to shield 
Rome from the invasion of Attila, and left his body 
among the hundreds of thousands who fell in the ter- 
rible battle of Chalons. On his son, of the same 
name, history has conferred the title of Theodoric the 
Great. The Burgundians, who followed the Visi- 
goths into these parts, also embraced with alacrity 
the civilization which offered itself to them. The 
Franks came in last, one of the least cultivated of the 
German tribes, and gradually, during the sixth cen- 



196 ON THE LITERATURE 

tury, effected the conquest of the Burgundians and 
Goths ; and the period which followed was anything 
but favourable to the progress of social improvement. 
For some time, Provence remained an integral por- 
tion of the empire of the Carlovings ; but as that 
empire was also weakened and broken, this part of 
Gaul obtained its independence, under a number of 
feudal chiefs, who were in character essentially me- 
diaeval, but still preserving in their domestic manners 
much of that politeness and refinement which must 
be ascribed to Roman, and perhaps, also, in some 
measure, to Saracenic influence. 

The leisure of the feudal lord and his knights 
must have hung heavy upon their hands, for feudal 
life was, above all others, unceasingly monotonous. 
The chief pastime of their unconverted forefathers 
had been hard drinking, during which they told boast- 
ful tales of their. own valour, or listened to the ex- 
ploits of those mythic heroes, whose history had been 
handed down from generation to generation. When 
we become more intimately acquainted with the social 
life of the castle, in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies, we find that the chess-board, the dance, and 
a number of games, mostly of a childish character, 
helped to give a little variety to such amusements. 
The ardent spirited inhabitants of the south required 
more exciting diversions ; and a peculiar form had 
been given to these by the traditional refinement of 
manners before mentioned. From a few expressions 
which lie scattered through the pages of monkish 
writers, we learn that, even in their worst times, the 
natives of Provence loved the dance and the song, 
and that they were distinguished by a tone of gal- 
lantry which contrasts strongly with the habitual 



OF THE TEOBADOUKS. 197 

ferocity of barbaric life, but which was regarded with 
no indulgent eye by the monkish writers alluded to. 
Under the counts of Provence, this taste for gallan- 
try was matured into a system which might vie with 
the polite affectation of the age of Louis XIV. By 
one general assent, love became with the Provencal 
knight his entire occupation, when not engaged in 
the field — love, carried on according to prescribed 
forms and rules, was the game with which every one 
was expected to be acquainted ; and in its language, 
poetry, he was expected to converse. It was this cir- 
cumstance which gave its distinguishing character to 
the literature of Provence. The poetry of the troba- 
dours is chiefly of a lyric form, and may be divided into 
two classes — songs of strife and songs of love, — of 
which the latter is by much the most extensive. That 
love and poetry were inseparable, was a fundamental 
doctrine ; " No man can be a good poet if he be not 
in love," says the trobadour Elias Cairels : 

Nulhs horn non pot ben chantar 
Sens amar." 

And we shall find repeatedly, if we look through 
their lives, that the trobadours dated the rise of their 
poetic talent from the time of their first amorous 
adventures. " Griroud le Eoux," says his ancient 
biographer, " was a courteous and good composer of 
songs ; he fell in love with the countess, daughter of 
his feudal lord, and the love he cherished for her 
taught him poetry." 

There was a curious difference between the two 
great families of the Teutonic and Neo-Latin lan- 
guages in the appellation given to the poet. In the 
former, it was derived from a verb, which signified to 
create, in the latter, from one signifying to find; and 



198 ON THE LITEEATURE 

thus, with the Saxons and Germans, poetry was a 
creation, while with the Provencals and French it 
was an invention, and the poets were called (accord- 
ing to the dialect) trobadours or trouveres, persons who 
invent. These trobadours, or trouveres, were in 
general wild, restless, extravagant fellows, like too 
many of their descendants in later times, and this 
character became still more strongly impressed by 
the mode of life which their profession entailed upon 
them. A poet now profits by the sale of his book ; 
but a trobadour of the olden time had no other means 
of publishing his compositions to the world but by 
wandering from court to court, and reciting them 
himself. A numerous class of society throughout 
Europe lived in this manner, repeating from house to 
house their own works, or those of others, which they 
had committed to memory, and they were everywhere 
honoured and rewarded by their hearers. This was 
the practice in Provence, as well as in other coun- 
tries; but there, from the peculiar state of society 
we have just described, there appeared another and 
totally different class of poets — a knightly race, who 
composed, not for gain, but with the object of insult- 
ing their enemies, or, more frequently, with that of 
paying their court to their ladies. These are the 
trobadours of whom we would more especially speak 
on the present occasion, for it is to them chiefly we 
owe the love-songs and the biting and satirical sir- 
ventes, the classes of literature more peculiarly that 
of the trobadours. 

Literature, among this class of trobadours, had a 
totally different value from that which it possessed in 
the hands of the wandering minstrel. The latter was 
ever regarded as belonging to a servile caste, and, 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 199 

though rewarded and patronised, he was not allowed 
a position of familiarity with his worldly superiors. 
For him, literary talent procured food and clothing, 
but with the poor or inferior knightly trobadour it 
stood in the place of riches, and even of rank, and he 
associated freely with all that was great and noble. 
Giraud le Roux, already mentioned as having fallen 
in love with the daughter of his feudal lord, the count 
of Toulouse, was the son of a poor knight. The ad- 
ventures of the lady were, however, in this instance, 
much more remarkable than those of her lover. In 
1 147 she accompanied her father to Syria, where she 
was taken prisoner by the Saracens, and became an in- 
mate of the seraglio of Noureddeen, prince of Alep- 
po, who eventually made her his wife ; and after the 
death of her husband, she governed for some time the 
little kingdom of Aleppo as guardian of her infant 
son. After the departure of his lord and his mistress 
for the crusades, Giraud le Roux appears to have 
given up the life of a courtier, and to have thrown 
himself upon the world in the character of a wander- 
ing jongleur. 

Bernard de Ventadour, one of the most eminent of 
the Provencal poets of the twelfth century, was the 
son of a menial servant in the castle from which he 
took his name. The court of the viscount of Ven- 
tadour was at that time celebrated for its literary 
splendour; and his lord, Ebles III., gave every 
encouragement to a youth who attracted attention 
equally by the beauty of his person and by his poetic 
talents. Bernard fixed his love not on the daughter 
but on the wife of his feudal lord, the viscountess of 
Ventadour, and he was secretly received on that 
equivocal footing legalized in the love code of Pro- 



200 ON THE LITEEATUKE 

verbal gallantry. For this lady he composed a great 
number of lyric pieces, all remarkable for a graceful- 
ness of style superior to that of most of his contem- 
poraries. Bernard made no secret of his conscious- 
ness of this circumstance ; — " It is no wonder/' he 
says, in one of these songs, "if I sing better than any 
other trobadour, since I have a heart more inclined 
to love, and more pliant to its laws. Body and soul 3 
talent and knowledge, force and power, I have put all 
in love ; I have reserved none for any other thing." 
The familiarity between the lady of Ventadour and 
the poet at length aroused the jealousy of the viscount, 
who banished Bernard from his court, and confined 
his wife in her chamber, where she was cut off from 
communication with the world. Bernard quitted the 
Limousin, and repaired, about the year 1160, to the 
court of Normandy, where literature was encouraged 
by the duchess, Eleanor of Guienne, who four 
years afterwards ascended the throne of England, 
with her husband, Henry II. With this lady, whose 
son, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, derived from her his love 
of poetry, and who was at this time in the prime of 
her beauty, Bernard formed the same kind of liaison 
which he had been compelled to break with the vis- 
countess of Ventadour, but which appears, as far as 
we know, to have been, in this instance, without in- 
terruption. For Eleanor, as duchess of Normandy 
and queen of England, Bernard composed some of 
his best songs. Two stanzas from one of them will 
show the sort of familiar services which it was the 
duty of the favoured lover to perform — he is admitted 
to her bedroom, and assists in undressing her : — 

" My lady has so much craftiness and address, that 
she makes me always believe that she is going to love 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 201 

me. She deceives me agreeably ; she leads me into 
error by her sweet semblances. Lady, leave your 
craft and deceit. In whatever manner your vassal 
suffers, the hurt will fall upon you. 

" Oh ! she will do ill, my lady, unless she makes 
me go where she undresses herself ; and unless, hav- 
ing permitted me to kneel beside her bed, she deigns 
to present me her foot, that I may untie her well- 
fitting shoes !" 

A few years later, Bernard de Ventadour left the 
court of Eleanor to revisit his native land, — to sing 
new songs and make new conquests, — and he took up 
his abode during the remainder of his life, at the court 
of Raymond count of Toulouse. 

The gallantry of the trobadours led them, not 
unfrequently, into more daring adventures in the 
service of their ladies. Pierre de Maenzac, a poor 
knight of Auvergne, in the latter half of the twelfth 
century, was to the wife of Bernard de Tiercy what 
the trobadour last mentioned had been to the vis- 
countess of Ventadour, and had composed many songs 
in her praise. Perhaps Bernard was a cruel hus- 
band ; and for this, or some other reason, the lady of 
Tiercy allowed herself to be carried off from the 
castle of her lord by Pierre de Maenzac. It was a 
great prey for a poor knight, who had neither castle 
to shelter nor retainers to defend her ; but fortunately 
he was beloved and protected by the dauphin of 
Auvergne, and into one of his castles he carried his 
mistress. The lord of Tiercy soon discovered the 
place of their retreat, and demanded the restoration 
of his wife. But the dauphin, who (as we learn from 
the biographical fragments relating to the trobadours 
preserved in old Provencal manuscripts) was " one of 

k2 



202 OK THE LITERATURE 

the wisest and most courteous knights in the world, 
the most liberal, the most skilful in arms, and most 
knowing in love and in war," refused to give up either 
the ravisher or the lady. The result was an open 
war, the more serious because the bishop of Cler- 
mont took part with the husband, and joined his 
forces with those of Tiercy in the invasion of Au- 
vergne ; but the dauphin defended himself well, and 
in the end Pierre de Maenzac was allowed to keep 
his prize. 

Acts of violence like this were not uncommon at 
the period of which we are speaking, and several 
stories might be told remarkably characteristic of the 
state of society amongst these feudal chiefs. Baym- 
baud de Vaqueiras, a distinguished trobadour of the 
twelfth century, was the friend of Boniface marquis 
of Montferrat, one of whose vassals, and his especial 
friend, Boson d'Anquilar, was passionately enamoured 
of a young damsel named Isaldina Adhemar, but her 
parents refused their consent to the union, and, to 
put her out of his reach, placed her under the protec- 
tion of Albert marquis of Malaspina, in whose castle 
she was shut up. Boson, heart-broken at the loss of 
his mistress, took to his bed, refusing every consola- 
tion that could be offered, and there seemed little 
hopes of his recovery. In this emergency, Boniface 
collected a few of his friends, and, accompanied by the 
trobadour Baymbaud, who tells the story, penetrated 
into the castle of Malaspina by night, and carried 
away the lady by force. Baymbaud relates another 
adventure in which he was engaged with the mar- 
quis of Montferrat, when they carried away a lady 
by open daylight, as she was going to be married 
against her will. 



OF THE TROBADOTTRS. 203 

In accordance with the Provencal love code to 
which we have just alluded, when the knight had 
selected his mistress, he could not be received into 
her favour at once, but was obliged to pass through 
a regular novitiate, and advance by several steps or 
degrees. A trobadour of the thirteenth century has 
limited these degrees to four; during the first of 
which the suitor was to pay his court in silence, 
without venturing to give utterance to his wishes ; in 
the second, which was to commence with the moment 
when the lady gave him sufficient encouragement 
to allow him to speak, he was to go no further than re- 
spectfully praying for her good will ; the third step was 
that in which he had prevailed so far as to be listened 
to, and was rewarded now and then with gloves, or a 
scarf; the last degree was that of lover, which the 
lady at length condescended to grant by the first 
kiss with which he had been favoured, and from this 
time the knight became irrevocably attached to her 
service. The admission to this last degree was an 
imposing ceremony. Kneeling before his lady, with 
his two hands joined between her two hands, the 
knight devoted himself entirely to her, swore to 
serve her faithfully even to death, and to guard her 
with all his power from hurt or from outrage. The 
lady, on her part, declared that she accepted his 
homage, pledged to him the tenderest affections of 
her heart, and, in sign of the union which was thence- 
forth established between them, she generally pre- 
sented him with a ring, and with a kiss raised him 
from his kneeling posture. To render this ceremony 
still more solemn, a priest was not unfrequently in- 
troduced, who blessed the union of the lady with her 
suitor, and the latter was now understood to possess 



204 ON THE LITERATURE 

all her love and affections, her body alone being the 
property of her husband. Matrimony was thus re- 
duced to its lowest degree of moral importance, even 
supposing, with M. Fauriel (which, however, is 
rendered very improbable by the general tone of 
contemporary history), that the attachment between 
the lady and her love were, in many cases, of a Pla- 
tonic character. It was a doctrine of this school of 
gallantry, that love could not possibly exist in the 
married state, and that, if a lady subsequently married 
a knight who had been her lover, the love between 
them ceased from the moment of solemnising the 
nuptials. We ought, perhaps, not to be surprised at 
the existence of such loose notions of marriage, when 
we consider that in those feudal times it was seldom 
anything more than an interested or political union. 
Among the innumerable love questions which were 
debated in the courts of gallantry, we find one which 
peculiarly illustrates the doctrine just mentioned. 
A knight made love to a lady who was already pro- 
vided with a lover, and she therefore could not listen 
to his suit ; but, unwilling to leave him entirely 
without hope, she promised to take him for her 
knight, in case she should lose the one who already 
enjoyed her love. Shortly after this promise, the 
lady married her first lover, on which the second 
knight claimed the fulfilment of her promise. The 
lady, in surprise, said that she owed him nothing, 
since, so far from having lost her first lover, she had 
taken him for her husband. But the knight persisted, 
and a lady of high rank and celebrity was called 
upon to sit in judgment, who condemned the married 
woman to fulfil her promise, on the ground that she 
had veritably lost her first lover in making him her 



OF THE TKOBADOURS. 205 

husband. The knight, in all such cases, was bound 
to keep secret the name of his lady, who was only 
spoken of either by some poetic name, or by some 
allusive phrase, known to themselves, so that when 
she was celebrated in the trobadour's songs, none but 
herself knew who was referred to. 

Such was the artificial character given to social 
life in the land of the trobadours during the twelfth 
century, under the influence of which almost every 
knight who laid claim to a courtly education, became 
a poet, and the number of their love-songs, still pre- 
served, is very considerable. The period at which 
this state of society arose is uncertain ; but it cannot 
be distinctly traced further back than the twelfth 
century. The courts of love, which were the highest 
refinement of these principles of gallantry, and in 
which questions like that just stated were pleaded 
and judged, existed in the middle of that century. 
They probably originated in the games and amuse- 
ments of the castle, in which such questions had 
been put and answered in sport ; and it is, perhaps, 
to one of these games only that the count of Poitiers, 
the earliest known trobadour (who wrote about 1 100), 
refers, when he says to his lady in one of his songs, 
is And if you propose to me a game of love, I am not 
so foolish but that I know how to choose the best 
[question?] rather than the bad one." 

E si m'partetz un juec d'amor, 

No suy tan fatz 
Non sapcha triar le melhor 

Entr'els malvatz. 

In fact, we might easily adduce evidence of the 
existence of such games in countries where the courts 



206 ON THE LITERATURE 

of love, in their more perfect form, were never estab- 
lished. Early in the thirteenth century the poetry 
of the trobadours began to decline. The state of 
society which we have been describing, combined 
with the independent position which the feudal chiefs 
of these districts had held towards the court of 
Rome, had produced freedom of inquiry in religious 
matters, and old traditions of a less corrupt form of 
Christianity were gaining ground, and became what 
the church of Rome looked upon as a dangerous 
heresy. In the sanguinary war raised by the church 
under pretence of a crusade against the sect of the 
Albigeois, the fair countries where the trobadour had 
sung were devastated with rapine and slaughter in 
their most savage forms ; and before the middle of 
the thirteenth century, the last sparks of poetry in 
Provence were extinguished by the blind bigotry of 
Romanism. The poets who followed were only tro- 
badours in name — the talent which had distinguished 
their predecessors was fled for ever, or, in a few in- 
stances, had taken refuge in other lands. The courts 
of love were continued in name, but their practical 
amplication had ceased, and they gradually degenerated 
into poetical or rather rhyming clubs, such as were 
formed at a somewhat later period in Italy and 
Spain. The gallantry of the earlier age was con- 
tinued in an equally immoral, but in a coarser form. 
Provence no longer offered, in its social manners, the 
same model of polite refinement ; but it is a difficult 
thing to extinguish civilization entirely, and the 
spirit of refinement which had been checked in the 
land of the trobadours, scattered, in its departure 
thence, a sprinkling in almost every country in 
Europe. In Italy, before the end of the century, it 



OF THE TKOBADOURS. 207 

produced the immortal Dante. In France, almost at 
the same time, the mystical principles of the gallantry 
of the trobadours were embodied in the celebrated 
" Romance of the Rose." And in England, not quite 
a century later, the same spirit, derived through Italy 
and France, burst forth in the poetry of Chaucer. 

A Latin writer, probably at the beginning of the 
fourteenth century, who is known only as master 
Andrew the chaplain, published a collection of ques- 
tions propounded in the courts of love, with the 
judgments given in each case, and he generally adds 
the names of the ladies who judged them, who all 
belong to the twelfth century. An example or two 
will best show the peculiar character of these ques- 
tions, which often become too trivial to bear repeat- 
ing. A young lady, possessing already a lover, is 
married to another man ; has she the right, after her 
marriage, of discontinuing her attachment to the 
lover and refusing him her accustomed favours ? The 
viscountess Ermengarde of JSTarbonne was called to 
judge this case, and decided it against the lady. A 
lover had no other means of corresponding with his 
lady but by a secretary ; the latter took advantage of 
his position, and obtained the lady's favours; the 
question to be decided was, whether the secretary 
should be the lady's lover or the man he had betrayed. 
This case was brought before the countess of Cham- 
pagne, who gave judgment that, as the secretary had 
shown his unworthiness in betraying his trust, and 
the lady had degraded herself by listening to a secre- 
tary, they should be allowed to continue their love to 
each other, but that they should for ever be cut off 
from communion with other lovers, and that no 
knight should ever make love to the lady, and no lady 



208 ON THE LITERATURE 

ever listen to the secretary. It will be quite enough 
to mention one other question, and as the ladies were 
always chosen as the worthiest judges in courts of 
love, we willingly leave to our fair friends its decision. 
Twenty wandering knights were riding together in 
" horrible " weather, far from any place of hospitality ; 
two barons, who were riding by in great haste to 
visit their ladies, heard these knights lamenting to 
one another that they were without shelter, and 
knew not where to find one ; one of the barons re- 
turned to succour the wandering and friendless 
knights, but the other turned a deaf ear to the knights, 
and continued on his way to his mistress : which of 
the two barons behaved best ? 

In general, poetry, as the language of homage in 
love, was the province of the suitor ; but love some- 
times made poets of the ladies also, and ten or twelve 
poetesses flourished in the latter half of the twelfth 
century, some of them persons of high rank, such as 
the countess of Provence, the countess of Die, Clara 
d'Anduse, &c. Their compositions are marked by 
an imagery less laboured and striking, and by a 
tenderness of feeling more naive, than those of the 
masculine trobadours. Clara d'Anduse (who, it must 
not be forgotten, was, like the others, a married lady) 
addresses a lover, whom some of her acquaintance 
had urged her to discard, in the following terms (we 
translate two couplets only) : — 

" Those who blame me and forbid me to love you, 
only render my heart more inclined to you, and 
greater the soft desire I have of you. There is not 
a man, let him be ever so much my enemy, whom I 
do not love if I hear him speak well of you ; and he 
who speaks ill of you can neither say nor do anything 
more to please me. 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 209 

" Ah ! fair ami, fear not that my heart shall ever 
deceive you, or that I will ever have another lover, 
were there a hundred ladies who urged me to it. Love, 
which holds me your captive, ordains that I preserve 
you in my heart in secret ; I keep it for you, and if 
I could steal away also my body, he who now holds 
it should never have it again." 

The songs of the trobadours strike us at once by a 
remarkable facility in the management of rhymes, and 
by their perfect and harmonious versification, at a 
period when the poetry of other parts of Europe was 
extremely rude. But the great mass of poetry thus 
devoted to the one subject of love, naturally produced 
a constant repetition of the same ideas, and led to a 
continual straining after novelty, in order to diversify 
the mode of expressing them. It would, indeed, be 
no easy task at any time to vary the praise of the 
same object a hundred different times. The love 
poetry of the trobadours becomes thus wearisome by 
its sameness when collected together. Yet here and 
there we find the tenderest sentiments expressed, 
delicately and poetically, presenting a singular con- 
trast to the rough and turbulent character of the 
twelfth century, as it is represented in history. 

" When I see the green grass and the leaf bud 
forth," says the trobadour Bernard to the viscountess 
of Ventadour, " and the flowers open in the fields, 
when the nightingale raises its voice high and clear, 
and bestirs itself to sing, I am happy of the nightin- 
gale and of the flowers, I am happy of myself, and 
more happy of my lady ; I am on all parts enveloped, 
laden with joy ; but joy of love passes all others. . . . 

" If I had the power to enchant the world, I would 
transform my enemies into children, in order that 



210 ON THE LITERATURE 

none of them might be able to imagine anything to 
the hurt of my lady or of myself. I would then con- 
template at my leisure her beauty, her ruddy colour, 
and her beautiful eyes. I would kiss her on all 
points of her mouth, and so ardently that the mark 
would appear a month afterwards." 

In another song, the same poet says to his lady : 
cc The sweet song of the birds in the grove soothes 
me and brings back my heart ; and since the birds 
have their reason for singing, well may I also sing ; 
I who have greater joy than they, I whose days are 
all days of singing and joy, I who dream of nothing 
else. . . . 

" At night, when I make myself ready for my bed, 
I know well that I shall not sleep : I lose my sleep, 
I lose it in thinking of you, O my lady ! There 
where a man has his treasure, he will have his heart ; 
thus do I myself; thus have I placed in you all my 
care and all my thoughts." 

Arnaud de Marveil, another trobadour of the latter 
half of the twelfth century, was one of the poets of 
the olden time whose compositions were especially 
admired by Petrarch. Arnaud, although, like others 
of the more distinguished of his profession, born of 
parents in a low walk of life, was the accepted lover 
of the countess of Beziers, of whom he says, in one 
of his pieces: — 

(( When my lady speaks to me and looks on me, 
the brightness of her eyes and the sweetness of her 
breath penetrate together into my heart ; and there 
rises to my lips a deliciousness such as I feel cannot 
come from my nature ; it can only spring from love, 
which has fixed its dwelling in my heart." 

In another poem, when he appears to have offended 
the countess by an indiscretion, he says : — ■ 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 211 

" Fair lady, well did you kill me the day when 
you gave me a kiss, which has left in my heart an 
eternal trouble. But greater was my folly when I 
boasted of the kiss; and I deserved to be torn to 
pieces by horses. O sweet object! mercy for the 
culpable! Restore me to joy and to hope; for I 
shall be a creature of nothing in the world, until the 
day when I shall again be allowed to serve you.'' 

Arnaud de Marveil long enjoyed the love of the 
beautiful countess, until king Alfonso, of Aragon, 
saw and became enamoured of her ; and he, jealous 
of the trobadour, prevailed upon her to break off her 
connection with him. It is said of Arnaud, that he 
was one of the small number of trobadour s known to 
have confined his love to one object. His contem- 
porary, Hugues Brunet, loved a lady of Aurillac, who 
at first encouraged his suit, and then, for some reason 
or other, refused to listen to him. Hugues composed 
some pathetic pieces, in which he sung his grief, and 
then retired to a monastery and died. In one of his 
songs, composed when his love was not hopeless, he 
says: — 

" Let my lady remember me in her heart : for the 
rest I will wait, provided only that looks and sighs, 
may kiss each other, in order that the amorous desire 
may not be repulsed." 

Folquet de Marseilles was one of the most cele- 
brated of the trobadours, and, although his father 
was only a merchant of the city from which he took 
his name, was distinguished by the friendship of the 
lion-hearted king Richard. He was also high in 
favour with Alfonso II., king of Aragon, Alfonso 
VII., king of Castile, and Raymond V., count of 
Toulouse ; but he lived almost entirely at the court 



212 ON THE LITERATURE 

of Barral de Baux, lord of Marseilles. Barral's lady 
was Azalais de Boche-Martine, and to her Folquet, 
although himself married, offered his love, and she 
was the object of nearly all his poetry that has come 
down to us. But, for reasons which are differently 
explained, he lost the good graces of the lady, and 
was forbidden to sing of her any more. In the midst 
of his chagrin, Azalais died, and shortly afterwards 
her husband followed her to the grave. King Bichard, 
Alfonso of Aragon, and the count of Toulouse were 
also dead; and Folquet, disgusted with the world, 
retired to the monastery of Toronet, of which he 
was made abbot in the year 1200. The poetry of 
Folquet de Marseilles is distinguished by a greater 
degree of mannerism than appeared in that of his pre- 
decessors. His pieces are all in the same style, with 
little variety of sentiment or expression, consisting 
in general of affected and tiresome apostrophes to 
love. In fact, the poetry of the trobadours was 
already on the decline. A single stanza of Folquet 
de Marseilles will be enough : — 

" Mercy ! love, mercy ! do not make me die so 
often, since you can kill me with a single blow. You 
make me to live and to die at the same time, and thus 
double my martyrdom. Nevertheless, although half 
dead, I remain faithful to your service, and I find it 
still a thousand times preferable to the recompenses 
which I should find in another." 

We must not be surprised if the trobadours them- 
selves at times became weary of making love in this 
formal and affected manner, and if they sometimes 
sought relaxation among country maidens. This was 
what they called, very expressively, joie de chambre 
en paturage. Adventures of this kind became the 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 213 

subject of pieces of a pastoral character, in which a 
knight riding into the country meets with a pretty- 
shepherdess, descends from his horse, and seats him- 
self by her and makes love, sometimes successfully, 
while at others his advances are resolutely opposed, 
and sometimes the damsel is obliged to call a party 
of shepherds to her assistance. In these pieces, 
perhaps from a sentiment of bienseance, in deference 
to the more polite and refined love code of the day, 
the shepherdesses are often painted somewhat in the 
style of those who figure in the dull, prudish novels 
of the age which followed the publication of "Astree." 
Sometimes, however, the loves of the knights and 
the shepherdesses are described in very plain and un- 
equivocal language. 

As we have seen trobadours quit their profession 
and retire to the cloister, so we find others who left 
the cloister to devote themselves to love and poetry. 
Among the most remarkable of these was a singular 
personage, known only in history by the epithet of 
the monk of Montaudon. His father was a gentle- 
man of the neighbourhood of Aurillac, in Auvergne, 
who placed him while young in the famous monastery 
of that town. Very soon after he took the habit, he 
was made, perhaps by family interest, prior of the 
dependent monastery of Montaudon. In this position 
he gave free scope to his natural inclination for com- 
posing poetry and living joyously, and the extreme 
gaiety and vigour of his pieces, which were mostly 
satires on the manners and events of the day, made 
him a welcome guest at the tables of the barons and 
knights of the surrounding country. As his fame 
increased, he was loaded with gifts, and, careless 
himself of money, he gave all he gained to his monas- 



214 ON THE LITERATURE 

tery, which, from a poor house, soon became rich by 
his means; and, in return, the abbot of Aurillac 
granted him, at his own request, a dispensation to 
lead in future the kind of life which should be pre- 
scribed to him by the king of Aragon. This mo- 
narch, who was a great lover of the trobadours, and 
was probably well acquainted with the character and 
inclinations of the monk, ordered him to live in the 
world, to make good cheer, to compose verses, to sing, 
and to love the ladies ; and the king's commands were 
obeyed to the letter. Most of the monk of Montau- 
don's poetry is satirical, and often grotesque. In one 
of these, which, as M. Fauriel observes, possesses 
something Aristophanic in its character, the monk 
describes himself as present in the court of Paradise, 
where different creatures are pleading against each 
other before the Creator. Among the rest, the vaults 
and walls of houses come to make their complaint 
against the ladies, who used so much paint for their 
faces, that none was left to paint them. The plead- 
ing is carried on with obstinacy, and the satire is of 
a coarse cast, but the ladies in the end gain their ob- 
ject. It appears that painting was a general prac- 
tice among the ladies at this period. 

The trobadours entered upon the crusades against 
the Saracens with no great zeal, and those who left 
their country to join in these distant expeditions re- 
joiced more at their return than at their departure. 
Some of the more eager of the crusaders complained 
bitterly of the facility with which the barons and 
knights of the midi found excuses for remaining at 
home. One had a young wife ; another had children 
to attend to and protect ; a third was sick, or imagined 
he was. Some made the supineness of their supe- 



OF THE TEOBADOUES. 215 

riors an excuse for their own ; others thought that 
the service of their ladies was more important than 
that claimed by the church. Even the turbulent 
war-loving Bertrand de Born, in a song addressed to 
Conrad de Montferrat (then actively engaged in 
Syria resisting Saladin), says, " I should have been 
there with you, if the delays of counts, dukes, princes, 
and kings, had not obliged me to renounce my project. 
And since that I have seen my beautiful lady, and 
I have lost all inclination to go /" This general dis- 
inclination to take part in the war in the East arose 
from no prejudice in favour of peace and tranquillity, 
for the trobadours loved war passionately, and were 
constantly engaged in those petty hostilities between 
baron and baron which characterised this period of 
feudal history. Many of their war-songs furnish 
strange pictures of a turbulent and licentious age. 
Bernard Arnaud, of Mantua, a trobabour knight of 
the latter half of the twelfth century, attached to the 
service of the court of Toulouse, says, in one of his 
pieces : — 

" Spring never arrives so beautiful for me as when 
it comes accompanied with uproar and war, with 
trouble and alarm, with great inroads and great plun- 
dering. Many a one who previously had done nothing 
but give counsel and sleep, then rushes forward 
courageously, his arm raised to strike. 

" I love to see the herdsmen and shepherds wan- 
dering about the fields, in such trouble that not one 
of them knows where to seek refuge. I love to see 
the rich barons obliged to squander that of which 
they have been niggard and sparing. He then is 
eager to give who never had a thought of giving 
before ; and many a one then honours the poor man 



216 ON THE LITEEATUKE 

who used to despise him. War forces every had lord 
to hecome good to his people." 

Another trobadour of the same age, named Bla- 
casset*, in a song urging two lords to decide a quarrel 
by force of arms, in which he does not conceal his 
intention of joining, exclaims: — 

" War pleases me ; I love to see it begin ! It is 
by war that brave men raise themselves ; war helps 
them to pass their nights ; war brings them gifts of 
handsome steeds ; it forces the miser to become libe- 
ral ; it obliges people to give and to take. War is a 
good dispenser of justice; it pleases me, without end 
and without truce 

" Oh ! when shall I see, in fair field, our adversa- 
ries and ourselves drawn out in close lines, so that at 
the first fine shock there may be many overthrown 
on both sides ? There many servants shall be cut to 
pieces, many horses killed, many knights wounded. 
If nobody ever returns from it, I care not : I shall 
feel no sorrow ; I had rather die than live without 
honour." 

"If," says Bertrand de Born, with the prospect 
before him of a war between Bichard Coeur-de-Lion 
and the king of France — " if the two kings are brave 
and valiant, we shall soon see the fields strewed with 
fragments of helms and shields, of swords and saddles, 
of breast pieces cloven down to the girdle. We shall 
see steeds wandering about loose, with lances hang- 
ing to their flanks and breasts ; we shall hear laugh- 
ing and weeping : the cry of distress, and the cry of 
joy ; great will be the losses, immense will be the 
gain. 

" Trumpets and drums, standards, banners, and 
ensigns, horses white and black ; in the midst of these 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 217 

we shall live ! Oh ! the good time there will be then ! 
Then we shall plunder the usurers; we shall then 
see on the roads neither baggage-horse safe, nor 
burgher who does not tremble, nor merchant coming 
from France ; then he will be rich who has the courage 
to take." 

Bertrand de Born was perhaps, without exception, 
the most turbulent baron of his day. From his castle 
in Perigueux, he was perpetually at war with the 
various feudal lords whose territories surrounded his 
own, and he was as constantly occupied in setting his 
neighbours by the ears among themselves. In his 
youth, his brother had attempted to deprive him of 
his estates, and Bertrand was only saved by the pro- 
tection given to him by Henry II. of England. He 
showed his gratitude afterwards by allowing no op- 
portunity to escape of stirring up war between that 
monarch and his undutiful sons, sometimes allying 
himself with one party, and sometimes with the other. 
He seems to have been distinguished chiefly by a wild 
unbridled love of war and confusion. Yet the old 
biographers of the trobadours say that Bertrand 
"was a good knight, a good warrior, a good troba- 
dour, a good lover of the ladies, well instructed and 
skilful in speaking, and he knew well how to govern 
himself in good and bad fortune." The enemy of 
everybody has everybody for his foe; and it does 
not appear that Bertrand de Born was often left in 
peace, even had he desired it. In one of his sirven- 
tes, or satirical pieces, he says — 

6 [I am obliged every day to be at war, to stir me, to 
defend myself, to put myself out of breath. On every 
side they burn and ravage my lands, they root up my 
trees, they disforest my woods, they mix my grain with 

II. L 



218 ON THE LITERATURE 

my straw ; and I have not an enemy , either coward 
or brave, who does not come forward to attack me." 

In another, he expresses his contempt for all his 
neighbours who were inclined to be peaceful : — 

" I make another sirvente against our degenerate 
barons ; for you will never hear me praise them. I 
have broken more than a thousand spurs upon them, 
without being able to make one of them run or trot. 
They let themselves be despoiled without complain- 
ing ! Oh ! may God curse them, our barons ! And 
what do they intend to do then ? There is not one 
of them, but you might shear and shave him like a 
monk, or shoe him on four feet without shackles for 
his legs ! " 

As old age approached, Bertrand de Born, like so 
many others, was seized with repentance for the nu- 
merous crimes of his turbulent life, and he became a 
monk, and ended his days in a monastery. 

The last war-cries of the trobadours were raised 
loudly and fiercely against the French invaders of 
their liberties. Of these, as of all the remains of their 
warlike poetry, it is difficult to give extracts, because 
they are so full of local and temporary historical al- 
lusions, that it would require a page to explain each 
passage. The French influence was always disagree- 
able to the Provencals, and their poetry has preserved 
many a bitter testimony of their hatred for the govern- 
ment of Charles of Anjou. Boniface de Castellane 
was a small feudal lord and trobadour, who resisted 
the count of Anjou to the last, both as a warrior and 
as a poet, and his sirventes were well calculated, by 
their vigour and violence, to spread abroad the spirit 
of opposition. When Boniface shut himself up in his 
own castle, he issued the following poetic manifesto : 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 219 

tc Although the season be not gay, I will compose 
a sirvente in biting words, against the recreants and 
the perverse. The French leave neither breech nor 
coin to these poor and sorrowful Provencals, to the 
cowardly and vile race. 

ee From some they take their lands, and that with- 
out even showing them the favour to leave them their 
money. Others, knights and servants, they send them 
prisoners to the Tower of Blaie, as they would vile 
bandits : and if they die there, all the better for the 
French who seize upon their goods. 

" The cowards and traitors have deserted me with 
their false servants. I give myself no sorrow about 
it : I shall be none the weaker on that account. I 
will hold good in my fortress with my brave men, 
and I care little if the count comes against me with 
his numerous forces. 

" Whoever kills, shall die, says the Gospel ; the 
day will come, then, when the count shall suffer for 
that which he inflicts upon others. 

" Let his gaolers come and make war upon me, and 
I will send them back in sorrow and mortification. 
I will stain my sword with their blood, and upon 
them I will make of my lance a short staff." 

The count of Anjou, in his resentment, laid siege 
to Boniface's castle, took it, and immediately hanged 
the trobadour. 

Such was the literature of the trobadours, or poets 
of the south of what is now called France ; a litera- 
ture totally distinct in its character from that of any 
other country at the same period of history. We have 
described it according to its two divisions of love- 
songs and war or political songs, of which the minor 



220 ON THE LITERATURE 

classes of poetry peculiar to this literature are but 
varieties. It must be understood, however, that con- 
temporary with these there existed a large class of 
poetical compositions which were common to Pro- 
vence with other countries of the West. The min- 
strel was a person who wandered over many lands, 
and, at the period when minstrelsy was most honoured, 
he had often learnt, in the course of his travels, several 
languages. We trace the Christian minstrel some- 
times wandering among the Arabs, as at times we 
find the Arab minstrel among the Christians of the 
West. They were a class of persons received every- 
where gladly, because they not only furnished amuse- 
ment wherever they came, but they imparted know- 
ledge, as they were the great carriers of news from 
one country to another. It was by their intermedia- 
tion that the West received so many of the stories and 
traditions of the East. The languages of France, of 
Provence, and of the superior classes of society in 
England, as well as those of Italy and the Christian 
portions of the Spanish peninsula, were, in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, only so many dialects of one 
tongue ; and the minstrel easily changed the dialect 
of the poetry he had to recite into that of his hearers. 
It is thus that we still sometimes find in early manu- 
scripts, the same piece written in one manuscript 
in the dialect of France or in Anglo-Norman, and in 
another manuscript in Provencal, leaving it in some 
instances doubtful to which of the languages or dia- 
lects it originally belonged, while in other cases this 
is only known by some accidental circumstance. We 
thus find a considerable variety of literary produc- 
tions in the Provencal language, which do not strictly 
belong to it ; and there were also, doubtless, writers 



OF THE TROBADOUKS. 221 

in the south of France who employed their talents in 
the same styles of composition as those for which 
their brethren in the north were distinguished. 

The poetry which we have been describing seems 
to have belonged so essentially to a peculiar state of 
society, that we find comparatively few traces or even 
imitations of it in the literature of France or England. 
It was most successfully imitated by the minnesingers 
of Germany, whither somewhat of the spirit of Pro- 
vencal society was carried early in the thirteenth 
century. It was not, as we have already observed, 
till a later period, after it had ceased to resound in 
the country which gave it birth, that this poetry 
exerted its great influence on the literature of Europe, 
and that rather indirectly than directly. 

The final decline of the poetry of Provence is easily 
accounted for. The war against the Albigeois 
destroyed the condition of society which chiefly sup- 
ported it. The inquisition was brought in in place 
of the courts of love ; and the papal authority, now 
become paramount, had many reasons for discouraging 
those trobadours, who were then placed, towards the 
Church, much in the same position which the Welsh 
bards are traditionally represented as holding towards 
Edward L, in his invasions of Wales. A still more 
effective cause of this decadence may be seen in the 
proscription of the language which followed the es- 
tablishment of the French domination, when French 
became the only dialect fashionable among the higher 
classes of society in the south, and Provencal was 
degraded to be the mere conversational dialect of the 
vulgar. From this moment, the poetry listened to 
most favourably in the baronial-hall was that brought 
by the minstrels of the north. 



222 ON THE LITERATURE 

I have, as yet, hardly mentioned the " Histoire 
de laPoesie Provencale" of the late M. Fauriel, which 
has chiefly given rise to the foregoing observations, 
my object being only to give an accurate notion of 
what that poetry really was. I have taken this book as 
a heap of materials — good and bad— ready to my hand. 
The name of Fauriel had been long known in the 
literature of France, and endeared to his personal 
acquaintance (among whom I rejoiced to reckon 
myself) by his great amenity of temper and other 
amiable qualities. He was a man of considerable 
taste, and of extensive, but not very profound, read- 
ing ; but deficient in critical judgment, and apt to 
form hasty conclusions from very inconclusive evi- 
dence. His reputation as a literary man was first 
made by a collection of the popular songs of modern 
Greece, published in 1824. Himself an homme du 
midi, he subsequently devoted his energies to the in- 
vestigation and illustration of the history and litera- 
ture of the south of France, and published, in 1836, 
a " Histoire de la Gaule Meridionale," in four octavo 
volumes. In 1831 he had been chosen to fill the 
newly-established professorship of foreign literature, 
at the Sorbonne ; and it was in that capacity that he 
delivered a series of lectures on the literature of 
Provence. These lectures, collected together since 
his death, by one of his friends to whom he has left 
his papers, form the book mentioned above ; and, 
after perusing it carefully, I am inclined to think that 
it would have been better for the author's literary 
memory had they still remained unpublished. My 
personal recollections of the man would lead me to 
pass in silence over the errors of his book ; but they 
are of too grave a character to be allowed to be spread 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 223 

abroad under so honourable a name, and to be ren- 
dered more mischievous by the injudicious admiration 
of some critics, who have praised such a work without 
understanding its merits. It is a book, too, which con- 
tains much valuable matter — more, probably, than any 
existing work on the same subject, and written in the 
same popular style — although ill-arranged and ill- 
digested. 

Professing to give a history of the poetry of Pro- 
vence, M. Fauriel has included in his work not only 
that which was peculiarly the poetry of the troba- 
dours, but also that which we have just described as 
imported from northern France. To this, we have, 
of course, no objection, had the different circumstances 
connected with the history of each class been care- 
fully and accurately stated ; but the strong prejudices 
of the author led him to form the paradoxical 
opinion that the whole body of this literature was 
purely Provencal, and that Provence was the birth- 
place and nursery of the literature of almost all other 
countries. The long metrical romances of the middle 
ages, as well as the shorter popular stories known in 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the title 
of Fabliaux, and, indeed, every other class of mediaeval 
poetry, were, according to the system of M. Fauriel, 
of Provencal origin. In his zeal to establish this 
favourite position, the lecturer of the Sorbonne 
neglects or confounds dates and facts, takes his own 
suppositions and misconceptions as evidence, repeats 
old erroneous statements which have been disproved 
and exploded over and over again in our modern in- 
creased knowledge of mediaeval antiquities, and con- 
sequently produces a treatise which is disfigured by 
a multitude, not only of indefinite and confused 



224 ON THE LITEEATUEE 

statements, but of downright blunders. We need 
only mention, to show our readers how little trust 
can be placed in the accuracy of M. Fauriel's 
" Histoire de la Poesie Provencale," that, to support 
some strange theory relating to the origin of the 
German national romances, he heedlessly confounds 
the ancient Edda with the younger Eclda, and makes 
his own error the foundation of his subsequent 
arguments. 

Among the poems recited by the minstrels, and 
thus carried from one land to another, were the 
lengthy metrical romances so much in vogue during 
the middle ages, which were founded sometimes on 
the imaginary annals of king Arthur and his knights ; 
at others, on the traditionary histories of the wars and 
feuds of the earlier Frankish races of kings ; and at 
others again, on mythic stories, taken from ancient fa- 
ble, and a variety of kindred subj ects. These romances 
are very numerous, and many of them are very long ; 
the greater proportion, at least, were, no doubt, com- 
posed in France, and they are found in manuscripts, 
written in Anglo-Norman and in various French 
dialects, according to the district in which they 
happened to be committed to writing, either from 
other copies, or from the mouth of the minstrel. The 
number and character of the variations found in 
different copies of the same romance, show that they 
must have been frequently taken down from oral re- 
citation. Some half-dozen of these romances are 
found written in the Provencal tongue ; and M. 
Fauriel immediately arrives at the conclusion that 
not only these, but all other romances of the same 
stamp, were invented by the trobadours, and that this 
class of compositions also was imitated and copied 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 225 

from them by the poets of the north. Even the cycle 
of king Arthur and his Round Table is not excepted. 
Not only is this extraordinary theory utterly un- 
supported by any evidence better than the various 
suppositions of the author, but it happens, to be a 
notorious fact, that all these Provencal romances but 
two are found repeatedly in manuscripts written in 
French of an earlier date than the single copies 
written in Provencal, and that they there occur in 
the same words, making allowance for the difference 
of dialects, and for the usual various readings of 
manuscripts. The two romances which are excep- 
tions to this belong to the same class of fictions, and 
are composed in much the same style, so that there is 
very little room for doubt that all the Provencal ro- 
mances are mere copies from the French romances. 
The allusions to so many of these compositions 
found in the genuine poetry of the trobadours is 
easily explained, by the rapidity with which we 
know that the* taste for the French romances was 
spread over neighbouring countries by the wander- 
ing minstrels. They were translated into German, 
almost, if not quite, at as early a period as into 
Provencal. 

5 

M. Fauriel perpetrates a still greater absurdity in 
the attempt to prove that even the national romances 
of Germany originated in his favourite Provence. 
With this object, he actually gives a place in his book 
to a long analysis and to a dissertation on the history 
of the celebrated romance of the " Niebelungen," 
which he follows previous writers in supposing (with 
probability enough) to have been compiled from older 
popular ballads ; but he seems to imagine that these 
popular ballads came from the south of France, with- 



226 ON THE LITERATURE 

out, however, stating any kind of admissible evidence 
for such a supposition. No less than three or four 
long chapters are also devoted to the curious early 
Latin poem of Waltharius, or, as it is here entitled, 
(i Walter of Aquitaine," a romance closely connected 
with the German cycle of the " Niebelungen." This 
M. Fauriel pronounces to be an undoubted produc- 
tion of a Provencal writer of the tenth century, and 
he pretends to discover in the idioms of his language 
proofs that his mother-tongue was no other than 
Proven cal. But when he comes to state his reasons 
for this appropriation, we find him falling into the 
same confusion of blundering citations and erroneous 
interpretations which occur so frequently in other 
parts of the book. " There is now," he says, " no 
need of further conjecture on the subject. Two new 
manuscripts of the poem in question recently dis- 
covered, one in Belgium in the municipal library of 
Brussels, the other in the royal library at Paris, have 
made known with certainty the author of this com- 
position. The manuscript of Brussels points out as 
the author a monk of the abbey of Fleury, or Saint- 
Benoit-sur-Loire ; and this indication is confirmed 
and developed by the manuscript in the royal library. 
In this last, the text of the poem is preceded by a 
dedication of twenty-two dull and half-barbarous 
Leonine verses. The author of this poem speaks of 
himself as the author of the poem, and describes him- 
self by the name of Gerald. Without expressly 
calling himself a monk, he says enough to lead us to 
conclude that he was one. Gerald dedicates his work 
to a brother of his, whom he names Archambauld 
(Erkambaldus), and to whom he gives the title of 
bishop. Thus it remains clearly and fully established 



OF THE TKOBADOURS. 227 

that the poem of Walther of Aquitaine was composed 
on the banks of the Loire, on the confines of the 
Prankish Gaul and the Aquitaine of the middle ages, 
and that it was composed by a monk named Gerald, 
of whom everything announces that the maternal 
idiom was a romane (ISTeo-Latin) idiom, and rather 
that of the south than that of the north." It would 
hardly be believed, if the facts were not before the 
eyes of everybody who chooses to look at them, that 
the dedication here made so much of, which is found 
in the two manuscripts of Brussels and Paris, states 
no more than simply that the author was a monk 
named Gerald, or Gerard, and that he dedicated his 
book to a bishop named Erkambald, without the 
slightest allusion to assist in fixing the country to 
which either of these personages belonged. M. 
Fauriel, in calling the monk the brother of the 
bishop, has mistranslated the Latin of the ori- 
ginal : — 

" Sis felix, sanctus per tempora plura sacerdos ; 
Sit tibi mente tua Geraldus carus adelphus" 

The word adelphus, in the Latin of the age to which 
this poem belongs, was used simply to designate a 
monk (frater) ; and is thus a distinct statement of 
the author's sacred profession, which M. Fauriel sup- 
posed was only to be presumed by indirect implica- 
tion. M. Fauriel had concealed from his readers, or 
he had overlooked (which is equally unpardonable), 
the fact that the statement that Gerald or Gerard 
was connected with the abbey of Fleury, instead of 
being (as he says) found in the Brussels manuscript, 
was the mere hasty and improbable conjecture of some 
one who, at a much later period, wrote in the fly-leaf 



228 ON THE LITERATURE 

of the Parisian manuscript, that perhaps this Gerard 
was St. Gerard, monk of Fleury. There are good 
reasons, on the contrary, for supposing that the 
author of the Latin poem of " Waltharius " was a 
monk of St. Gall, and there is scarcely room for 
doubting a moment that it was written by a German, 
and founded upon German traditions. Thus, between 
the " Niebelungen " and " Waltharius," M. Fauriel 
has composed nearly one-half of his first volume of 
materials altogether foreign to his subject. 

In his anxiety thus to enlarge the field and in- 
fluence of Provencal literature, M. Fauriel has 
striven to reconcile dates by giving to that literature 
a much earlier existence than is warranted by any 
historical facts. It is quite clear, from what remains, 
that the poetry of the trobadours was only rising into 
existence at the beginning of the twelfth century, 
when there was a contemporary poetry equally ex- 
tensive existing in France, and another in Germany ; 
that the period at which that poetry flourished was 
the latter half of the twelfth century ; and that it was 
already declining at the beginning of the thirteenth. 
It is equally clear that during the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries the poetry of northern France was 
carried to Provence by the French minstrels, and 
taken from them by the minstrels of the south. 
I have several times heard it whispered that an Eng- 
lish translation of M. Fauriel's book is or was in 
preparation, under the impression that it was a capital 
work ; the subject is sufficiently interesting to be 
treated in a better manner, and if it should ever be 
translated, I sincerely hope that it may fall into the 
hands of somebody who understands it sufficiently 
well to be able to correct the errors by numerous 



OF THE TROBADOURS. 



229 



notes. The subject itself is of sufficient interest, 
both as a national literature which has long become 
extinct, and as a very important element in the his- 
tory of mediaeval civilization and intellectual develop- 
ment, to merit a better treatment, and to form the 
object of an original work. 





XXIII. 

ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 

HERE is no instrument of attack to which 
mankind is more universally sensible than 
ridicule. Everybody has a perception of 
what is droll and ludicrous. A taste for 
the humorous is in a great degree independent of 
national difference, of caste or rank, or even of educa- 
tion and refinement. It is often found in the greatest 
perfection among the lower orders of society. Hence 
the history of comic literature is not one of progres- 
sive improvement. But this branch of literature, 
more than any other, is affected and modified by the 
political circumstances of the age, or by the peculiar 
character of the people. It prevails least among 
tribes in a wild and unsocial state of life, as among 
wandering savages, or with the modern Oriental, 
who, in his closed serail, seeks for amusement that 
will flatter or excite his passions. There are people 
of that gloomy character who never laugh. On the 
other hand, it finds the greatest encouragement amid 
the turbulence of moral or political revolution. Hence 



HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE, ETC. 231 

the history of this class of literature has a peculiar 
interest, not shared in an equal degree by any other 
class. 

The materials for the history of comic and bur- 
lesque literature among the ancients are incomplete, 
for we know little of such productions as those of 
the Atellane and Fescennine muses, and of many 
other classes of popular compositions which were in 
vogue among the Greeks and Romans. We know 
still less of the history of this branch of literature 
among the Germanic tribes for ages after their settle- 
ment in the imperial provinces, but the earlier me- 
diaeval compositions of this description appear in 
general to have been imitations of Roman models. 
The wit or ingenuity of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 
was chiefly exerted in playing upon words, one of 
the worst blemishes of. mediaeval taste; and their 
literary amusement seems to have consisted princi- 
pally in guessing at the meaning of riddles, of which 
a great variety are still preserved. Puns and riddles 
are indeed, as far as we know, the only comic forms 
to be discovered in the Anglo-Saxon writers. It is 
not until after the entrance of the Normans that we 
find any traces in England of what is properly termed 
satire. In the life of the Saxon Hereward, we see 
the Norman knights in their baronial hall listening 
to their jongleur or minstrel, while he turned to 
ridicule, by his coarse and indecent satire and his 
comic gestures, the manners of the people whom they 
had dispossessed of their lands.* 

From this time forward we have abundant proof 
of the prevalence and increasing popularity of com- 

* " De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis," c. 14, in the " Chroniques 
Anglo-Normandes," vol ii. p. 41. 



232 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

positions of a satirical character, which were nourished 
into vigour by the violent struggle between the 
ecclesiastical and secular powers, in which the latter 
laid bare with unsparing knife the wickedness of the 
Romish system in all its workings. A Latin rhymer 
of the tenth century did not scruple to turn into 
ridicule the popish purgatory legends, in a burlesque 
narrative of a man who had been in Paradise, and 
had seen John the Baptist acting as butler, and his 
namesake, the Evangelist, performing the part of 
cup-bearer, while St. Peter held the office of master 
of the cooks. Another Latin poet, of the earlier part 
of the twelfth century, boldly charges Rome with 
worshipping silver like the pagans of old, and with 
devouring, in her insatiate greediness, the riches of 
every country which acknowledged the supremacy of 
the papal see : — 

" Gens Romanorum subdola antiqua colit idola. 
* * * * 

Ornatas vestes Grsecise, ebur cum gemmis Indise, 
Deliciosa Francise, argentum, aurum Anglise, 
Lac et butyrum Flandriaa, mulas, mulos Burgundiae, 
Roma deglutit penitus, digna perire funditus." 

After boasting at length of its all-powerful influ- 
ence, and the mode in which that influence was 
exerted, the papal see is made to sum up its actions : — 

" Qusecunque volo facio ; ego nuptas decipio ; 
Ego corrumpo virgines ; edomo cunctos homines." 

Such satires as these, it must be remarked, came 
from the pen of ecclesiastics, who scorned to imitate 
the larger body of their brethren in pandering to the 
support of a system of which the vice was apparent 
to every one. Some of the adventurous satirists of 



DUKING THE MIDDLE AGES. 233 

this early age are guilty of parodying scriptural lan- 
guage in a manner which, not many years ago, might 
have subjected them to a criminal prosecution. We 
give a translation of one of the shortest and least ob- 
jectionable of these, as a curious proof of the opinion 
of the scandalous venality of the court of Rome in 
the twelfth century, at which period it was written. 
It was a famous joke among the satirical reformers of 
that age, that the pope had mistaken Mark, the 
evangelist, for a mark of money : — 

" The beginning of the holy gospel according to a 
mark of silver, 

ie In that time the pope said to the Romans, s When 
the son of man shall come to the seat of our majesty, 
first say to him, <e Friend, for what comest thou ?" 
And if he shall continue knocking, without giving 
you anything, cast him out into utter darkness.' And 
it came to pass that a certain poor clerk came to the 
court of our lord the pope, and cried out saying, 
( Have pity on me, you, gate-keepers of the pope, for 
the hand of poverty hath touched me, and I am poor 
and needy, therefore I pray that you will relieve me 
in my misfortune and wretchedness.' But they, hear- 
ing this, were very indignant, and said, ' Friend, thy 
poverty be with thee in perdition ; go behind, Satha- 
nas, for thou art not wise in the wisdom of money. 
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt not enter 
into the joy of thy lord until thou hast given the last 
farthing.' And the poor man went away and sold 
his cloak and his tunic and all he had, and gave the 
money to the cardinals and to the gate-keepers, and 
they said, ( What is this among so many of us ?' And 
they cast him out at the door. And having gone out, 
he wept bitterly, and had no consolation. And after- 



234 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

wards there came to the court a certain rich clerk, 
fat and pursy and swollen, who had seditiously com- 
mitted homicide. This man gave first to the gate- 
keeper, secondly to the chamberlain, thirdly to the 
cardinals; but they judged among themselves that 
they were going to receive more. But our lord the 
pope hearing that his cardinals and ministers had 
received many gifts from the clerk, became sick unto 
death. Then the rich man sent him a medicine of 
gold and silver, and immediately he was healed. 
Then our lord the pope called to him the cardinals 
and ministers, and said to them, ' Brethren, take heed 
lest any one seduce you with empty words ; for I set 
you an example, in order that, as I take, so also take 
ye.' " 

This singular scrap of early satire has been printed 
in a very curious collection of early Latin poetry, 
published at Paris by M. Edelestand du Meril. 
Pieces of this kind are not very uncommon at the 
end of the twelfth and during the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries. A parody on the service of 
the mass, under the title of " Missa de Potatoribus," 
the Mass of the Drunkards, is printed in the second 
volume of the " Reliquiae Antique ;" and a shorter 
parody will be found in the same collection, com- 
mencing with the words, " Initium sancti Evangelii 
secundum Lupum. Fraus tibi, Bacche," and con- 
tinued in the same strain. Lupum is, of course, a 
play on Lucam, and fraus a similar play upon laus. 
These were the amusements of Romish clergy ! 

As we advance in the twelfth century, the satirical 
writers against the Romish church become extremely 
numerous. Walter Mapes gained celebrity by his 
jokes and stories against the monastic orders; and 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 235 

the same period produced several larger publications, 
of a satirical character, directed against the corrup- 
tions of the age in general, but more especially against 
those of the Church of Rome. Among the most re- 
markable, and the most extensively popular, were the 
poem " De Contemptu Mundi," of Bernard of Mor- 
laix, and the " Speculum Stultorum " of our own coun- 
tryman, Nigellus Wireker. Perhaps we should enu- 
merate in the same class the still more comprehensive 
" Architrenius" of John de Hauteville, except that in 
this instance the reforming hero goes about weeping 
over the vices of mankind, instead of laughing at them. 
The first century and a half after the Norman 
conquest present us with few specimens of playful 
humour in the literature of this country ; but this 
is easily explained by the loss of the great mass of 
the popular literature of the middle ages, previous to 
the thirteenth century. In the twelfth century, how- 
ever, we begin to perceive among the Latin writers 
that taste for comic stories which became so preva- 
lent in the century following, and of which some 
scattered instances occur at an earlier period, as in 
the Latin ballad of" Unibos"(published in Grimm and 
Schmeller's collection of early Latin poetry), and one 
or two other poems of the same stamp. The clergy of 
the twelfth century amused themselves with com- 
posing what they designated by the title of Comedies, 
consisting of licentious tales, with a comic denoue- 
ment, written most frequently in elegiac verse. Such 
are the « Geta" of Vitalis of Blois, the " Alda" of Wil- 
liam of Blois, and the " Babio" of an anonymous writer. 
The celebrated Peter of Blois condemns these vain 
labours of his brother William, although he acknow- 
ledges having written similar poems in his youth; 



236 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

and his judgment was certainly not unsupported by- 
reason, for the " Alda" of William of Blois is a piece 
of undisguised obscenity. 

We have hitherto found the comic literature of the 
middle ages, as being written in Latin, confined 
chiefly to the clergy, or learned class of society. But 
it was rapidly making its way among the laity of the 
higher class, who spoke the French or Anglo-Norman 
tongue. The first comic production with which we 
are acquainted, written in Anglo-Norman, is the 
poem on Charlemagne's pretended voyage to Jeru- 
salem and Constantinople, which was printed a few 
years ago in this country, and published by Mr. Pick- 
ering. In this poem the barons of Charlemagne's 
court are represented as passing their evenings in 
making gabs or jokes ; on one occasion, at Constan- 
tinople, amid their gabs, they boast of extravagant 
and ridiculous feats which each pretends he is capable 
of performing, and the emperor, who has been made 
acquainted with their conversation by means of a 
spy, and who seeks an occasion of quarrelling with 
his unwelcome visitors, threatens them with death, 
unless each boaster perform the feat of which he had 
so indiscreetly vaunted. They escape the danger, 
partly by miracles, and partly by cunning and oppor- 
tune accidents, so that each performs, or appears to 
have performed, his feat. This incident of the barons 
gabbing and joking at their evening assemblies, is pro- 
bably a correct picture of the social manners of the 
end of the twelfth century. We meet with several 
instances of the popularity at this period of indivi- 
duals distinguished by their wit, an example of which 
is afforded in the person of Walter Mapes. But the 
great composers and publishers of French and Anglo- 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 237 

Norman comic literature in this and the succeeding age 
were the jongleurs, or minstrels, who were the constant 
attendants in the baronial hall after the festive meal, 
and the form of this literature was most generally 
that of tales or fabliaux. 

These fabliaux are historically of great value, as 
faithful pictures of the private and public manners in 
the middle ages; but they are pointed with bitter 
satire, and are largely tainted with that extraordinary 
licentiousness which prevailed in the middle ages. The 
immense number of these fabliaux which still remain 
shows what an extensive class of literature they once 
formed. Too many of them turn on subjects at 
which the modesty of the present day will not allow 
us to hint. In others, of a character somewhat less 
objectionable, the grossness of the story is redeemed 
in a certain degree by its exquisite humour. Others 
again are burlesques and parodies, or pieces of a merely 
playful character, although even these not unfre- 
quently conceal a satirical aim. Examples of all these 
different classes will be found in the collections of 
Barbazan, Meon, and Jubinal. We meet sometimes 
even with literary satires among these productions ; 
the coarse story of Audigier, in the fourth volume of 
Barbazan, is a burlesque upon the tedious and ex- 
travagant romances of that age. M. Jubinal has 
published, under the title of" FatrasiesandResveries," 
two poems, consisting of words thrown together with- 
out any connected sense, in the style of certain plead- 
ings in " maister " Babelais, which were, without 
doubt, intended to turn to ridicule the unmeaning 
compositions of some of the writers of the time : the 
following lines, from the middle of one of these poems, 
will best show their style : — 



238 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 



"Li ombres d'un oef 
Povtoit l'an reneuf 
Sus le fonz d'un pot ; 
Deus viez pinge neuf 
Firent un estuef 
Pour courre le trot ; 
Quant vint au paier l'escot, 
Je, qui omques ne me muef, 
M'escriai, si ne dis mot : — 
Prenes la plume d'un buef, 
S'en vestez un sage sot," &c. 



" The shadow of an egg 
Carried the new year 
Upon a pot bottom ; 
Two old new combs 
Made a ball 
To run the trot ; 

When it came to paying the scot, 
I, who never move myself, 
Cried out, without saying a word:- 
Take the feather of an ox, 
And clothe with it a wise fool." 
Jubinal, "Nouv. Rec."ii. 217. 



No class is more frequently the object of these 
satires than the women, whose general character in 
the middle ages appears to have been far from amiable. 
It naturally happens, that when society becomes cor- 
rupt and dissolute, the weaker sex is the most deeply 
tainted by the evil. The history of society in the 
middle ages shows us but too plainly the demoralising 
effects of the Romish church-system on the female 
character, particularly in the middle and lower classes. 
The clergy , whose duty it was to be preachers of virtue, 
are universally represented as the general corrupters 
of private morals. In the stories to which we are al- 
luding, monks and priests are constantly introduced 
as actors in low intrigues ; and the general faults of 
the church are by no means spared. Sometimes the 
satirical poets enter upon religious subjects with 
remarkable temerity. In the story " Du Vilain qui 
conquist Paradis par plait," a peasant dies suddenly, 
and his soul escapes, at a moment when neither 
angel nor demon was on the watch, so that unclaimed 
and left to his own discretion, the peasant follows 
St. Peter, who happened to be on his way to Para- 
dise, and enters the gate with him unperceived. 
When the saint finds that the soul of such a low per- 
son has found its way into Paradise, he is angry, 
and rudely orders the peasant out. But the latter 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 239 

accuses St. Peter of denying his Saviour; and, 
conscience -stricken, the gate-keeper of heaven 
applies to St. Thomas, who undertakes to drive away 
the intruder. The peasant, however, disconcerts St. 
Thomas by reminding him of his disbelief, and St. 
Paul, who comes next, fares no better — he had per- 
secuted God's saints. At length Christ hears of 
what had occurred, and comes himself. The Saviour 
listens benignantly to the poor soul's pleading, and 
ends by forgiving the peasant his sins, and allowing 
him to remain in Paradise. This is a direct attack 
on the Romish system of saint-worship, and on the 
uncharitable character of the mediaeval church. 

The satirical spirit of the French and English writers 
of the thirteenth century found ample scope in attack- 
ing the monkish orders, which were then so rapidly 
increasing, and which were invading the rights of 
every other class of society. It would be vain to 
attempt, in our narrow limits, to describe, or even to 
enumerate, the satires against the monks written 
during this period, but the reader will find many 
examples in the collection of Barbazan, and in the 
works of Rutebeuf. This latter poet signalized him- 
self by his satirical attacks on them, in defence of the 
university, which they were then beginning to over- 
whelm. The popular satirists entered warmly into 
the struggle between the secular and theological 
studies, the latter of which were now aiming at the 
entire subversion of the former. The great revolu- 
tion, which during the thirteenth century was going 
on in the university system, was indeed not unfre- 
quently the subject of popular satire and burlesque ; 
of which we will only point out one example, en- 
titled " La Bataille des Sept Ars," because it is a 
veritable mediaeval " Battle of the Books." The seven 



240 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

arts of the university learning are divided against 
themselves ; the new authors and the men of science 
(la haute science) make war upon the ancients, or 
those who had been read and taught in the old 
grammar course, and the ancients take up arms in 
their own defence. The two armies meet in a plain 
near Orleans (the celebrated university in which city 
was firmly attached to the old course of study), and 
a dreadful engagement ensues, in which the different 
combatants perform feats worthy of the Homeric 
heroes ; but the victory remained with the moderns, 
although the writer of the poem, Henri d'Andely, 
prognosticates that before long the old course of 
teaching would regain its former position. Henri 
d'Andely is said to be the author of another poem 
of a similar stamp, entitled " The Battle of the 
Wines." Comic pieces of this description were not 
uncommon : we have the battle of Caresme (Lent) 
and Charnage (the season when meat was allowed to 
be eaten), the debate between wine and water, the 
dispute between the eye and the heart, &c. 

If we look to the Latin literature of the thirteenth 
century, which is extremely rich in comic and satiric 
verse, we see why the Romish church was jealous of 
the universities, and why so resolute and, in the 
sequel, so successful an attempt was made to push 
into them the monkish orders — the soldiers of the 
pope, as they have been aptly called — in order to 
suppress the freedom of study and of opinion. The 
universities were the nurseries in which grew up a 
crowd of writers who saw and boldly attacked the 
encroachments and the errors of Rome. In England 
this party was particularly strong ; for our country- 
men, with their sturdy spirit of freedom, have always 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 241 

had the honour of being a little schismatical in 
face of the papacy; and the Anglo-Latin litera- 
ture of this period teems with bold and energetic 
attacks on the disorders of the clergy. At the be- 
ginning of the thirteenth century — on the eve of the 
baronial wars — these writers had, in order perhaps to 
give a certain unity of character to their satire, set 
up an imaginary reformer of abuses, under the title 
of " Golias," or " Goliardus " — a reckless devourer, 
as the name indicates ; a sort of clerical jongleur, who 
was licensed to say what he thought in whatever 
terms he liked. -His pre-eminence above all other 
goliards or goliases is frequently marked by the 
addition of the epithet episcopus. It was under the 
name of " Golias Episcopus " that a very large mass 
of rhyming Latin verse, distinguished by its inve- 
terate hostility to the then existing state of things, 
made its appearance during the thirteenth century. 
One of the most remarkable of these pieces was 
called the " Apocalypsis Goliae," or Golias's Revela- 
tion : and if we may judge by its frequent occurrence 
in manuscripts of that age, it must have been widely 
popular in this country. The vices of the church 
are the things revealed to Golias, and they are de- 
scribed in no sparing language. The spiritual pastor 
of those days, we are told, thought more of being fed 
by his flock, than of feeding it: — 

" ISTon pastor ovium, sed pastus ovibus ." 

" He thinks less of the sheep which are in want, 
or lame, or sick, or tender, than of the amount of 
milk and wool which he is to gain ; — it is thus that 
he brings back the lost sheep on his shoulder:" — 

II. M 



242 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

" Non tantum cogitat ille de miseris, 
De claudis ovibus, segris, vel teneris, 
Quantum de compoto lactis et velleris ; 
Sic ovem perditam refert in numeris." 

The pope was the devouring lion, which spared no- 
thing. The archdeacon was a robber on a smaller 
scale, who fixed his claws on whatever had escaped 
the rapacity of pope or prelate. The faults of the 
officials were too numerous to compress within a 
small volume : — 

" Hie scriptas repperi consuetudines 
Omcialium, raptus, voragines, 
Fraudes, insidias, et turpitudines, 
Qua? magni codicis excedunt margines." 

" The world is struck with horror to see that such 
people continue to exist, and the earth trembles at 
the sight of them :" — 

" Hi sunt quos retinens mundus inhorruit ; 
A quorum facie terra contremuit." 

The priest was infamous for vices of another descrip- 
tion : — 

" Post missam presbyter, relinquens infulam, 
In meretrieulse descendit insulam ; 
Sic fecit Jupiter, qui juxta fabulam 
Coelum deseruit sequendo vitulam. 

" Hanc mulieribus proponit maximam, 
Quod rerum decima non salvat animam ; 
Nulla salvabitur ad horam ultimam, 
Nisi de corpore suo dat decimam." 

Abbots and their monks spent their lives in sensual 
indulgence; eating, and drinking, and chambering, 
were their principal occupations. The lines which 
follow lose in a translation : — 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 243 

" Quisquis de monacho fit dsemoniacus, 
Et cuique nionacho congarrit monachus, 
Ut pica pieae, ut psittaco psittacus, 
Cui dat ingenium niagister. stomachus. 

" His niola dentium tumorem faucium, 
Lagena gutturis ventris diluvium, 
Oris aculeus dat flanimas litium, 
Et fratruni malleus calorem noxium. 

" Cum inter fabulas et Bacchi pocula 
Modum et regulam suspendit crapula, 
Dicunt quod dicitur favor a fabula, 
Modus a modio, a gula regula." 

The details in this poem, and in the numerous other 
similar compositions, give us a fearful picture of the 
disorders of the clergy and the church ; but the va- 
riety and unanimity of the documents, and the con- 
fessions even of the monkish writers most zealous in 
the cause of Rome, prove that the picture was not in 
any respect overdrawn. Whence sprang these dis- 
orders, and why could they not 'be remedied? The 
whole system was bad — the disease lay at the heart 
and the head. The vice of the head affected all the 
members :— 

" Membra dolent singula capitis dolore. 
* * * * 

Roma mundi caput est ; sed nil capit mundum ; 
Quod pendit a capite totum est immundum ; 
Transit enim vitium primum in secundum, 
Et de fundo redolet quod est juxta fundum." 

Volumes might be filled with the works of these 
vigorous satirists, which are preserved in manuscripts. 
They sometimes take part in the political disputes of 
the times, and become extremely active at the period 
of the barons' wars under Henry III. The long 
Latin rhyming poem on the battle of Lewes, printed 



244 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

in my collection of political songs published by the 
Camden Society,* proclaims sentiments and principles 
worthy of the more advanced civilization of the present 
day. Sometimes these Latin poems become light and 
playful, and exhibit an ease and elegance which those 
who are not well acquainted with the spirit of the thir- 
teenth century would not expect. We may give as 
an example the three first stanzas of a graceful song 
on the vanities of courts, written in the thirteenth 
century ; and for the sake of such readers as have no 
care for the Latin, we will accompany it with a hasty 
metrical paraphrase, that may perhaps serve to give 
them some notice of the playful spirit of the original. 
The wearied and dissatisfied courtier says : — 



" Rimatus omnes curias, 
magnas, parvas, et medias, 
episcopales, regias, 
curiarura incurias, 
multiformes et varias 

dum video, irrideo ; 
nee ideo * 

a curiis abstineo, 
sed ipsas semper adeo, 
rimatus omnes curias. 



" A courtier old, I know full well 

The life a courtier leads, 
'Round kings and nobles few will tell 

The cares their station breeds ; 
But I despise the cringing bow, 

The flaunting air remote from glad- 
ness, 
The hollow smile, provoked, I trow, 

By pointless jest which covers sad- 
ness ; 
Yet still I follow courts, although, 

A courtier old, I know them well. 



* It will save the trouble of particular reference, if I give 
here a list of the principal collections which contain the smaller 
pieces of the comic and satirical literature of this and the fol- 
lowing age : — they are the collections of fabliaux, by Barbazan, 
Meon, and Jubinal; some of the other publications by M. 
Jubinal ; the " Anecdota Literaria," by the author of the present 
volumes; my "Early Mysteries, and other Latin Poems;" the 
two volumes of " Reliquiae Antique," by Wright and Halli- 
well ; the " Recueil de Chants Historiques Francais," by 
Leroux de Lincy ; the " Poesies Populaires Latines," by Ede- 
lestand de Meril ; and the " Political Songs of England," the 
poems attributed to Walter Mapes, and the " Collection of Early 
Latin Stories," all by the author of these volumes. 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 



2±5 



" In curiis sublimibus 
in ipsis curialibus 
non est locus virtutibus, 
omnes putrescunt sordibus 
pusilli cum majoribus, 

incuria, malitia, 

fallacia, 

obsidet tanquam propria, 

virtuti prsesunt vitia 
in curiis sublimibus. 



" Sublime tenent solium 
diplois adulantium, 
jugis scissura cordium, 
rancor, livor, et odium, 
spes, timor, ira, gaudium, 

et alia flagitia, 

tam varia, 

tamque detestabilia, 

et siqua sunt similia, 
sublime tenent solium." 



" Within tbe dwellings of the great, 

Where courtly vices haunt, 
Fair virtue seldom gains a seat, 

Scared by their features gaunt. 
Here thoughtlessness with vacant mien, 

There lucre foul, and double dealing, 
And gay self-love, whose joy hath been 

Too oft the source of others' wailing. 
All these, and many more, are seen 

Within the dwellings of the great. 

"Attendant on the monarch's throne 

Stand pride and grim disdain, 
And outward laugh with inward moan; 

Envy, that joys in others' pain ; 
Frenzied despair, and rancorous hate ; 

And nattering treason, born to sever 
The ties of love with harsh debate ; 

While fear and hope alternate ever. 
These are the various ills that wait 

Attendant on the monarch's 
throne." 



These clerical satirists sometimes laid aside the 
severity of their assumed character, and favoured the 
world with scraps of playful humour, and even con- 
descended to compose love-ditties in their favourite 
Latin. Many such effusions are still preserved, and 
a few specimens have been printed. Among these, 
we may point out the " Confessio Golise," in which 
the poet makes an avowal of his love for dice, wine, 
and women ; the invective of Grolias against the thief 
who had stolen his purse ; the declamation of Golias 
against marriage, a bitter satire on the fair sex ; the 
dialogue " Inter aquam et vinum ; " and the " Dis- 
putatio inter cor et oculum," in which each charges 
the other with being the incentive to vice. We have 
a good specimen of the playful burlesque of this 
period, in an amusing song on the tailors, as old as 
the middle of the thirteenth century; in which they are 
lauded for their skill in turning old garments into 
new ones, when the wearers were tired with the first 



246' ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

fashion. This song is also curious, as an early speci- 
men of the mixture of French with Latin, which was 
in this and the following centuries not uncommon, 
and was an approach towards the macaronic verse so 
popular at a later period. The few verses we have 
cited are accompanied, as on the last occasion, with 
a hasty rhyming version. The poet takes his theme 
from the opening lines of Ovid's " Metamorphoses : " — 



In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas 
Corpora ; Dii, cceptis, nam vos mutastis et illas, 
Aspirate rneis." 



"Ego dixi, dii estis; 
Quae dicenda sunt in festis 

Quare praetermitterem ? 
Dii, revera, qui potestis 
In figuram novae vestis 

Transmutare veterem. 

" Pannus recens et novellus 
Fit vel capa vel mantellus, 

Sed secundum tempora 
Primum capa, post pusillum 
Transmutatur haec in ilium; 

Sic mutatis corpora. 

" Antiquata decollatur, 
Decollata mantellatur, 

Sic in modum Proteos 
Demutantur vestimenta ; 
Nee recenter est inventa 

Lex metamorphoseos. 



" Cum figura sexum mutant ; 
Prius ruptam clam reclutant 

Primates ecclesi» ; 
Xec donatur, res est certa, 
Nisi prius sit experta 

Fortunam Tiresias. 



" Bruma tandem revertente, 
Tost lint sur la chape ente 

Plerique capucium; 
Alioquin dequadratur, 
De quadrato retundatur, 

Transit in almucium. 



" That ye are gods, I make no doubt ; 
And -wrong it is to leave you out 

Of cleric office ; 
For who hut gods, I ask, or you, 
Could change old garments into new 

By metamorphosis? 

" When cloth is new and fresh of nap, 
'Tis meet in haste ye give't the shape 

Of cape or mantle; 
But what the mode and form decreed, 
Or why the former should precede, 

You only can tell. 

" As Proteus changed, ye change the 

cloth ; 
When ruthless time and weather both 

Have done their duty : 
All duly clipp'd, the aged cape 
Comes forth a mantle new in shape 

As well as beauty. 

u Erst coat, now gown, ye change at will 
Not only form, but sex, your skill 

In full to show to us ; [plete, 
And thus, to make the change com- 
Tiresias it must imitate, 

As well as Proteus. 

" When winter comes with frost and 

storm, 
Some change again the faded form, 

And add a cover : 
With alter'd shape and alter'd use, 
Shoulders and head, a warm aumuce, 
1c muffles over. 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 



247 



" Si quid restat de morsellis 
Csesi panni sive pellis, 

Non vacat officio ; 
Ex his fiunt manuthecae, 
Manutheca quidem Grace 

Manum positio. 

" Sic ex veste vestem formant, 
Engleis, Tyeis, Franceis, Nor- 
mant, 

Omnes generaliter ; 
Ut vix nullus excludatur. 
Ita capa declinatur, 

Sed mantellus aliter. 

" Adhuc primo recens anno, 
Nova pelle, novo panno, 

In area reconditur ; 
Recedente tandem pilo, 
Juncturarum rupto filo, 

Pellis circumciditur. 

" Sic mantellus fit Apella ; 
Ci git li drap, e lapel la, 

Post primum divortium ; 
A priore separata, 
Cum secundo reparata, 

Transit in consortium." 



" And when each change is duly made, 
If ought he left unused, 'tis said, 

Be 't cloth or leather, 
Quick it becomes at your commands, 
A pair of gloves to guard the hands 

Against the weather. 

u German or French, to custom true, 
Norman or English, all pursue 

The self-same fashion : [cline ; 
And thus, enleagued, they cape de- 
But mantle has a different line 

Of transformation. 



" At first to hoard it up we're fain, 
While cloth and leather both remain 

In fair condition ; 
But if the fur to fade begin, 
Then from the cloth ye strip the skin 

By circumcision. 

" Here lies the skin despised, and there 
The cloth has proved the tailor's care 

Without miscarriage ; 
The mantle, thus being made a Jew, 
Contracts with leather fresh and new 

A second marriage." 



The song goes on to describe the different transfor- 
mations of the mantle, until at last, no longer capable 
of change, it is given as a reward to the servant. 

We have many fragments still left of political 
satire in the French language, written both in France 
and in England, in this age. We have already seen, 
in the life of Hereward, an Anglo-Norman jongleur, 
immediately after the conquest, burlesquing the van- 
quished Saxons in the hall of the foreign invaders of 
their rights; there has been preserved a curious 
specimen of the kind of effusion which the minstrel 
uttered on such occasions, the more interesting, be- 
cause it is written on a long slip of vellum, which the 
minstrel held in his hand to sing. This is a French 
(or Anglo-Norman) song, composed by one of the 



248 ON THE HISTOEY OF COMIC LITERATUKE 

baronial party, under Simon de Montfort, at the be- 
ginning of the civil war in the reign of Henry III. 
It contains satirical allusions to the leaders of the 
opposite party, as in the following lines, aimed at the 
bishop of Norwich, one of the king's chaplains, and 
an active partisan of the court. His house had been 
plundered by the popular party. 



" Et ly pastors de Norwis, 
Qui devoure ses berbis, 

Assez sout de ce conte ; 
Mout en perdi des ses biens : 
Mai ert que ly lessa riens, 

Ke trop en saveit de honte." 



" And the pastor of Norwich, 
Who devours his sheep, 

Knows enough of this story ; 
He has lost much of his goods ; 
Bad luck to the man who left him 
anything, 
For his conduct has been too 
disgraceful." 



In another song, written about the year 1264, 
when the king of France made an unsuccessful 
attempt to interfere between Henry and his barons, 
the English king and his court are the object of very 
coarse satire, which consists in making them talk 
broken and corrupt French, and use equivocal ex- 
pressions. It ends by the king declaring that he will 
place his son Edward on the throne of France, which 
is highly approved by Roger Bigot : — 



" ' Je crai que vous verra la endret grosse fest, 
Quant d'Adouart arra eorrone France test. 
II l'a bien asservi, ma fil ; il n'est pas best ; 
II fout buen chivaler, hardouin, et honest. 

" ' Sir rais,' ce dit Rogier, ' por Dieu, a, mai entent : 
Tu m'as perce la cul,* tel la pitie m'a prent, 
Or doint Godelamit,f par son culmandement, 
Que tu fais cestui chos bien gloriousement ! ' " 

* The earl, in his broken French, uses this expression instead 
of le coeur. 

f A corruption of God- Almighty. 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 249 

" ' I believe that you will see there a great festival, 
When France shall have crowned Edward's head. 
He has well deserved it, my son ; he is no fool ; 
He is a good knight, brave, and courteous.' 

" ' Sir king,' says Roger, ' for God's sake, listen to me : 
Thou hast pierced my behind, so much has pity overcome me. 
Now may God Almighty ordain, by his command, 
That thou perform this thing very gloriously ! ' " 

The wit, in this instance, cannot be preserved in a 
translation. Many larger works of general satire 
appeared during this age, but the one which has 
gained the most lasting reputation is the extensive 
poem, or cycle of poems, which goes under the 
title of the " History of Reynard the Fox." It is an 
application of fables to a political purpose. Early 
in the thirteenth century, and even in the twelfth 
century, we trace instances in which, to burlesque 
the corruptions of the age, the cunning and un- 
scrupulous Reynard is introduced acting a political 
character ; but, by the end of the thirteenth century, 
these fables had been worked up into a regular narra- 
tive, in French verse, extending to many thousand 
lines. The literature of the middle ages has an in- 
terest different from that of the literature of modern 
times. There was then less individuality of senti- 
ment. The literature was not that of the writers, 
but that of the age and of the people, of which alone 
it represented the notions and the feelings. Hence 
it happens that so large a portion of it is anonymous. 
The great fable of " Reynard the Fox " is not a satire 
on particular individuals, or on particular measures, 
but on the age in which it was composed. It was 
the satire of the people; a burlesque picture of 
society. The history of which we are speaking differs 

M 2 



250 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

much from the popular story which a later age has 
derived from the German. The French Reynard is 
much more extensive, more rambling in its incidents, 
and less connected as a whole. It consists of a series 
of episodes, each of which is a satire upon some class 
of persons, or on some point in the political system of 
the age, which was a subject of popular complaint; 
and it is probable that the different parts were sung, 
or repeated, separately, among the people, as public 
attention was called to them by grievances to which 
they were applicable. We have more than one in- 
stance of single episodes being translated into Eng- 
lish. Thus the quarrels between Reynard the Fox 
and Isenorin the Wolf, formed a cutting satire on 
the reckless turbulence of the barons, in which some- 
times low cunning, and at others brute force, gained 
the upper hand, and over which the sovereign (Noble, 
the Lion), could hold but an occasional restraint. 
Many of Reynard's adventures picture to us the 
rapacity and injustice of an age in which every man 
was on the watch to rob and cheat his fellow. Other 
parts of the story represent the disorders of the 
church ; and others again are satires on the different 
classes of society. Reynard's confession, and his pil- 
grimage, are bitter satires on .the two chief means by 
which the clergy exerted an abusive influence over 
the laity to their own advantage, and on the hypocrisy 
which prevailed among the professors of religion. 

Literature, as a political weapon, had, while re- 
stricted to the Latin language, been only in the 
power of the clergy. It was a great step which 
placed it, through the French language, within reach 
of the higher classes of the laity in England, and of 
society in general in France; but in our country 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 251 

another step was made in the thirteenth century, 
which marks the appearance on the political arena of 
a new class of combatants — the Commons of Eng- 
land. The first political songs and satires in the 
English language were published during the barons' 
wars, in the reign of Henry III. The earliest known 
example is a very spirited satirical song on the victory 
gained by the popular party over the royalists at 
Lewes, in 1264. Such compositions in English make 
their appearance not unfrequently amid the events of 
the latter part of this century; in the fourteenth 
century they take the place of the French poems of 
the preceding age. The English spirit and blood 
had, in fact, overcome that which, by the Norman 
conquest, had been intruded upon it. A satirical 
poem, written in English in the reign of Edward II, 
lays open the vices of all orders of society. Truth, 
it tells us, had been long banished from Rome. I 
modernise the language : — 

" For at the court of Rome, where truth should begin, 
He is forbidden the palace, and dare not come therein." 

The pope's clerks and the cardinals had threatened 
to slay truth, if he came there : — 

" All the pope's clerks have taken them to rede (counsel), 
If truth come among them, that he shall be dead. 
There dare he not show himself, for fear to be slain, 
Among none of the cardinals dare he be seen." 

Money was the only argument or plea to which 
the pope listened. Of archbishops and bishops, " Some 
are fools themselves, and lead a sorry life ; " they and 
the archdeacons were equally venal. Of the latter 
we are told : — 



252 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

" And these archdeacons that are sent to visit holy kirk, 
Every one tries how he may most cursedly work ; 
He will take bribes of the one and of the other, 
And let the parson have a wife,* and the priest another." 

The parson and the priest are censured for their 
evil life, and their ignorance : — 

" For right methinketh it fareth by a priest that is ' lewed ' 
(ignorant), 
As by a jay in a cage, that himself hath ' bishrewed ' (cursed) ; 
Good English he speketh, but he knows never what ; 
No more knows a 'lewed' prest in book what he 'rat' 
(reads) 

by day. 
Then is a 'lewed' priest no better than a jay." 

The pretended charity of the monasteries was of 
the same stamp as the religion of the priest : — 

" For if there come to an abbey two poor men or three, 
And ask help of them for holy charity, 
Scarcely will one ever listen to them, either young or old, 
But let them cower there all day in hunger and in cold, 

and starve. 
Look what love there is to God, whom they say that they 
serve ! " 

We might make a long list of short desultory 
satires in English on the Romish Church and its pro- 
fessors, published during the fourteenth century. In 
one ballad, the preaching friars are taxed with pride, 
and with the undignified manner in which they re- 
presented sacred subjects : — 

" Of these friars' minors, methinks great wonder, 
That are grown so haughty, who sometime were under ; 
Among men of holy church they make much ' blunder ' (con- 
fusion) ; 
May He that looks from above scatter them asunder ! " 

* The word wife meant simply woman at this period. 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 253 

In another, they are openly proclaimed to be the 
ministers of sin : — 

" Friars, friars, woe be to ye ! ministri malorum, 
For many a man's soul bring ye ad poenas infernorum. 
When fiends fell first from heaven, quo prius habitabant. 
On earth they left the sins seven, etfratres communicabant." 

They are here described as vicious in the extreme 
— guests to be carefully avoided in an honest man's 
house : — 

" Let a friar of some order tecum pernoctare, 
Either thy wife or thy daughter hie vult violare, 
Or thy son he will prefer, sicut fortem fortis ; 
God give such a friar pain in inferni portis ! " 

There is preserved a very singular English bur- 
lesque on the unprofitable sermons of these preach- 
ing friars, which is worthy of Rabelais himself. I 
venture to give a few sentences from the beginning, 
as a specimen, modernising the language, to make it 
more generally intelligible. It forms a link in the 
history of the mediaeval satires against the clergy — 
satires which deserve well to be collected together in 
a more complete series, for they form what may be 
well characterized as the voice of the middle ages 
against the Church of Rome. 

" Mollificant olera durissima crusta. Friends, this 
is to say to your lewd understanding, that hot plants 
and hard crusts maken soft hard plants. The help 
and the grace of the gray goose that goes on the 
green, and the wisdom of the water windmill, with 
the good grace of a gallon pitcher, and all the salt 
sausages that be sodden in Norfolk upon Saturday, 
be with us now at our beginning, and help us in our 



254 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

ending, and quit you of bliss and both your eyes, 
that never shall have ending. Amen. 

" My dear cursed creatures, there was once a wife 
whose name was Catherine Fyste, and she was crafty 
in court, and well could carve. Thrice she sent after 
the four synods of Rome, to know why, wherefore, 
and for what cause, that Alleluja was closed before 
the cup came once round. Why believest thou not 
for sooth that there stood once a cock on St. Paul's 
steeple top, and drew up the strapples of his breech ? 
How provest thou that ? By all the four doctors of 
Wynberry-hills, that is to say, Vertas, Gadatryme, 
Trumpas, and Dadyltrymsert, the which four doctors 
say there was once an old wife had a cock to her son, 
and he looked out of an old dove-cott, and warned 
and charged that no man should be so hardy neither 
to ride nor go on St. Paul's steeple top, unless he 
rode on a three-footed stool, or else that he brought 
with him a warrant of his neck," &c. &c. 

The fourteenth century, like the thirteenth, had 
its grand satirical poem ; this was the " Visions of 
Piers Ploughman," a work strongly marked with the 
bold, masculine energy of the English character. 
This poem was, perhaps, the most popular satire of 
the middle ages ; to us it is rendered somewhat con- 
fused by its allegorical form ; but that was consonant 
with the taste of the age in which it was written. 
We are astonished at the boldness with which it 
attacks the abuses of the secular and ecclesiastical 
powers, and with which it urges the doctrine of the 
natural equality of mankind. In " Peynard the 
Fox," the satire was indirectly implied, and was only 
felt by an application which was not necessarily appar- 
ent ; in " Piers Ploughman " it is direct and personal. 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 



255 



There is a daring spirit of radicalism in this work, 
which shows the freedom of opinion which had been 
generated by the long intellectual agitation of the 
preceding century, and which had given the most 
profound alarm to the Church of Rome. " Reason " 
is the preacher whom the writer of " Piers Plough- 
man " brings forward to reform mankind. He pro- 
claims that the monks and friars would be better em- 
ployed in occupations more useful to society than the 
vacant life they lead. Truth is the saint whose 
shrine he recommends as the object of pilgrimage. 
This saint, however, proves to be unknown to the 
Romish clergy — even the palmer, who wandered 
furthest in search of strange saints, had never heard 
of such a one before : — 



(l This folk frayned hym first, 
Fro whennes he come. 

'Fram Synay,' he seide, 
- And fram oure Lordes sepulcre ; 
In Bethlem and in Babiloyne, 
I have ben in bothe ; 
In Armonye and Alisaundre, 
In manye othere places. 
Ye may se by my signes 
That sitten on myn hatte, 
That I have walked ful wide 
In weet and in drye, 
And sought goode seintes 
For m}' soules helthe.' 

" Knowestow aught a corsaint 
That men calle Truthe ? [wey, 
Koudestow aught wissen us the 
Wher that wye dwell eth ? ' 
' Nay, so me God Jjelpe ! " 
Seide the gome thanne, 
* I seig nevere palmere, 
With pyk ne with scrippe, 
Asken after hym er 
Til now in this place.' " 



" This people asked him first, 
From whence he came. 

' From Sinai,' he said, 
' And from our Lord's sepulchre ; 
In Bethlehem and in Babylon, 
I have been in both ; 
In Armenia and Alexandria, 
In many other places. 
You may see by my signs 
That sit on my hat, 
That I have walked full wide 
In wet and in dry, 
And sought good saints 
For the health of my soul.' 

' Dost thou know at all a chief 
Whom they call Truth? [saint 
Canst thou at all teach us the way, 
Where that personage dwells ? ' 

* Nay, as I hope for God's help ! ' 
Said the man then, 
' I never saw a palmer, 
With staff or with scrip, 
Ask after him before, 
Till now in this place.' " 



The abusive pardons and indulgences of the pope, 
the unprofitable debates of the theologians, the sen- 



256 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

sual life of the monks and friars, all come in for their 
share of the reformer's lash. These latter are de- 
scribed as proud and overbearing, whose only study 
was to cheat the rich out of their lands, who cared 
nothing for true religion, and who looked with con- 
tempt upon the poor. These sentiments are ex- 
pressed still more strongly in another, and a shorter, 
satirical poem, written about the end of the fourteenth 
century, and published under the title of " Piers 
Ploughman's Creed." At the time when this poem 
was written, the reformers had become a sect, known 
by the name of Lollards, and they had already been 
made objects of persecution by the church, the 
secular power of which was at this moment strength- 
ened by political events. With the final suppression 
of the Lollards, the intellectual struggle was closed 
for a time. Learning, in the universities, had been 
crushed by the influence of the monks, who had 
raised over it the faculty of theology. The fifteenth 
century is, indeed, a dark period in literary as well 
as in political history. The Romish Church sat 
heavily, a mighty incubus on the human mind. 

We may pass over the history of the other branches 
of comic literature in England during the fourteenth 
century more briefly, for they are in general but 
imitations in English of the French compositions of 
the previous age. We have a few burlesques on 
manners and customs, such as the " Xournament of 
Tottenham," and the " Feast," and some pieces given 
in the "Reliquiae Antiquse; " and various compositions 
of a playful character. Here and there we meet 
with amusing specimens of local and personal satire. 
Of this we have a curious example, written as early 
as the beginning of the thirteenth century, in a Latin 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 257 

rhyming satire on the people of Norfolk, to whom 
are applied many of the stories which at a much 
later period were told of the men of Gotham. In 
the second volume of the " Reliquiae Antiquae " will 
be found a very curious satire of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, in Latin prose, against the people of Rochester, 
who are accused, among other things, of having tails. 
In the first volume of the same collection we have a 
burlesque Latin ballad, composed at the beginning of 
the fourteenth century, giving an account of a 
monkish feast at Gloucester. It is written in a style 
in which grammar and composition are set at defiance, 
and was evidently intended not only as a burlesque 
on the grossness of monastic life, but on the ignorance 
of the monks themselves, and on the barbarousness 
of monkish Latin. The abbot and prior, with their 
friends, are described as sitting at the head of the 
table, and keeping all the good things to themselves, 
while the monks of lower degree have to do all the 
drudgery, and are deprived of their share of the 
drinking. The party leave the feast to perform the 
evening service, and then return to the table, and 
" drink till they cry ; " — 

" Post completum rediere, 
Et currinum (the cup) combibere, 
Potaverunt usque flere 

propter potus plurima." 

When the abbot proposed that the others should be 
admitted to drink, the prior said : " They have enough 
wine ; shall we give all our wine to the poor ? What 
care we for the poor ? What they have is not much, 
but it is enough for them. They come to our meals 
without invitation ; if they were well fed, they would 
become proud and presumptuous :" — 



258 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

" Prior dixit ad abbatis, 
Ipsi habent vinum satis, 
Vultis dare paupertatis 

noster potus omnia ? 
Quid nos spectat paupertatis ? 
Habet parum, habet satis, 
Postquam venit non vocatis 
ad noster convivia. 
Si nutritum esset bene, 
Nee ad cibus nee ad coene 
Venisset pro marcis denae, 
nisi per precaria." 

In the sequel, the debauch is carried to the last 
degree of drunkenness. The actors in it are reported 
to the bishop, but they escape with impunity ; and 
the inferiors who complained against them, in revenge 
for being excluded, are brought to account for their 
rebellious conduct. In the fifteenth century we have 
a few burlesque pieces among the writings of Lyd- 
gate, and other poets of his school, but they are in 
general tame and pointless. The cleverest piece of 
comic writing of this period that we have met with, 
is preserved in a manuscript in the British Museum. 
It is a life of St. Nemo (or St. Nobody), and is a 
parody on the Romish " Lives of Saints.'' Though 
a tract of considerable length, passages of Scripture 
are adroitly applied to this imaginary saint, which 
prove beyond a doubt his power and station to be 
superior to all the other saints of the calendar. Some 
notion of the style of this tract may be derived from 
the opening lines, which are given below in a note.* 

* Beatus igitur Nemo iste contemporaneus Dei patris, et in 
essentia prsecipue consimilis filio, nee creatus nee prsecedens, 
sed formatus, in sacra pagina reperitur, in qua plane dictum est 
per psalmistam dicentum, Dies formabantur, et Nemo in eis. 
Cui postea merito tanta crevit auctoritas, ut ac si terrena res- 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 259 

The fabliaux of the thirteenth century, with all 
their spirit and satire, and much of their objectionable 
characteristics, took an English form in the hands of 
Chaucer ; but on the continent they were undergoing 
a new transformation. The same fearful pestilence 
which had furnished the occasion for composing the 
" Visions of Piers Ploughman," gave birth to the 
" Decameron" of Boccaccio. In distant England, this 
general calamity was looked upon as a signal for re- 
pentance, for self-accusation and reform ; while in 
Italy, in the very centre of the ecclesiastical power, 
it was only an occasion for heartless mirth and licen- 
tious raillery. The " Decameron " is a mere collection 
of fabliaux turned into Italian prose ; but it gave the 
example to a long series of imitators, and the jon- 
gleurs and their compositions were soon forgotten in 
the popularity of these new story-tellers. In France, 
the earliest and best collection is the celebrated work 
known as the " Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles," composed 
soon after the middle of the fifteenth century. The 
story-tellers were followed by the jesters, who also 
appear to have originated in Italy, the first collection 
which has obtained any lasting fame being that of 
Poggio of Florence. This class of writers were 
gradually aiming at the Romish Church a blow no 
less fatal than that inflicted by the direct satire of the 
reformers ; but they, amid the general licentiousness 
of the time, were allowed to work almost unobserved. 
With these sprang up a reckless jeering atheism, 
which prevailed extensively under cover of the 

puens ad coelorum culmina volatu mirabili pervolavit, sicut 
legitur, Nemo ascendit in ccelum. Et hoc idem testatur Do- 
minus, dicens, Nemo potest venire ad me, &c. — MS. Reg. 12 



260 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

Romish rites and outward ceremonial of the end of 
the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. 
But the church at this time could overlook atheism 
and immorality, while it hunted and destroyed where 
it could the slightest traces of what it chose to term 
heresy. The freedom with which Boccaccio brought 
monks and nuns on the stage in his licentious stories, 
rendered the "Decameron" unpalatable to the clergy. 
But another collection of stories, many of which are 
no less objectionable than those of Boccaccio, the 
"Ecatommithi" of Giraldi Cinthio, composed two 
centuries later, in the very heat of the Reformation, 
was authorized to be printed by the vice-inquisitor 
hcereticce pravitatis, named Cigliari, who states that 
these tales are consonant with the principles of the 
holy Roman Church, and contain nothing opposed to 
the apostolical faith — Hecatommithos consonos esse 
sanctce Romanes ecclesicB, et ab apostolicajide non abhor- 
rere. In fact, Cinthio states in his introduction that 
he had designedly avoided introducing monks and 
nuns in objectionable situations. We may, however, 
easily excuse the Romish Church from being very nice 
on this point at the period of which we are now speak- 
ing, for the treatise by the Jesuit Sanchez, " De Sancto 
Matrimonii Sacramento," which was famous even at 
the time it was published for the extreme licentious- 
ness of much of its details, was authorized for im- 
pression as containing nil bonis moribus adversum, and 
the censor naively informs us that he had read it over 
and over with the greatest pleasure — legi et perlegi 
maxima cum voluptate ! 

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, after the 
invention of printing, the popular literature of the 
middle ages began to make its appearance in a debased 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 261 

form, a circumstance which marks the last gasp of 
the mediaeval system. The great romances of the 
thirteenth century were published in a shape which 
gradually degenerated into what have been since 
termed chap-books, a literature that was hawked 
about the streets. Many of the fabliaux and comic 
poems were issued as broadside ballads. " Reynard 
the Fox," derived from the German and Dutch, came 
forth as a mere fable. It was accompanied by other 
comic romances, such as that of Howleglas (Eulen- 
spiegel), still teeming with satire on society and on 
the church. These were followed in France by a 
very extensive variety of low burlesque and satiri- 
cal publications, which were circulated among the 
middle and lower classes, and their cynical indecency 
shows how the writers pandered to the scandalous 
dissoluteness of society in the sixteenth- century. In 
England, John Skelton may be looked upon as the 
last of the mediaeval satirists. In his writings there 
is more of the character of the middle ages than of 
the renaissance ; Gothic imagery, the sentiments 
almost of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
mixed with the pedantry of the sixteenth. In his 
writings and in those of the school he formed, we 
find the elements of the macaronic poetry which 
became early in the sixteenth century so popular in 
Italy in the writings of Merlinus Coccaius (Folengi), 
and in France in those of Antonius de Arena (de 
la Sable). 

In many of its characteristics the sixteenth century 
bore a remarkable resemblance to the thirteenth. It 
opened in the same manner with religious and political 
agitation, with a new and, in the sequel, a more suc- 
cessful struggle for emancipation from the tyranny of 



262 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

the middle ages. It was a powerful stream, which, 
confined for a time within narrow rocks, suddenly 
burst from its hiding-place, an irresistible torrent. 
The Reformation was no child of accident or circum- 
stances, but the inevitable result of the efforts of cen- 
turies. The voice of the middle ages against the 
Church of Rome had been silent during the fifteenth 
century, but it was not stifled ; and when, at the 
Reformation, it was heard again, we recognize in it 
the same bold, fearless, manly tone which gave life to 
the literature of the thirteenth century. In fact, the 
Church of Rome had not changed in its measures or in 
its character : it had the same political and moral vices 
— pride, tyranny, and cruelty, avarice and lust — 
which seemed to increase with the imbecility of age, 
and they called forth the same expressions of indig- 
nation from the satirists. It is somewhat singular 
that the satirical writers of the beginning of the six- 
teenth century raised up a personage similar in every 
respect to the Golias of the beginning of the thir- 
teenth ; they named him Pasquillus, or Pasquil. 
Like Golias, this personage claimed an unbounded 
licence in expressing his opinions, and the " tomi duo 
Pasquillorum" form a series of the bitterest satires on 
the Romish corruptions that can easily be imagined. 
These satires partake largely of the coarseness of 
the age. Pasquil appears sometimes as an old man, 
worn out with indulgence, who vents his satire on the 
society with whose vices he has had a long acquaint- 
ance ; at others he appears as a young and vigorous 
champion in the cause of truth. These effusions, 
composed sometimes in Latin, and sometimes in Italian 
(for Italy seems to have been their "fatherland"), both 
in verse and in prose, are at times addressed to Pas- 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 263 

quil in the form of epistles or epigrams, as in the 
following instance : — 

" Ad Pasquillum. 

Cur non te fingi scurram, Pasquille, rogasti ? 

Cum Komse scurris omnia jam liceant." 

Or in this, where Rome herself dictates the offer- 
ings by which her favour is to be bought: — 

" Roma ad Pasquillum. 
Si pueros mihi prostitues, tenerasque puellas, . 
(Haec mihi namque placent munera) dives eris." 

More frequently the sentiment is made to come 
from Pasquil's own mouth, as in the following epi- 
gram, in which he bids farewell to Rome : — 

" Roma, vale : vidi, satis est vidisse : revertar 
Quum leno, meretrix, scurra, cinaedus ero." 

It was the literature represented by these com- 
positions which paved the way for the Reformation. 
Even the tales of the middle ages became a formid- 
able weapon in the hands of such men as Henry 
Stephens, whose" Apologie pour Herodote" is a singu- 
larly bitter attack on the Roman Catholic party. 

Among the most remarkable and amusing bur- 
lesques published at the eve of the Reformation, was 
the famous collection of the " Epistolse Obscurorum 
Virorum," which originated in one of the religious 
disputes that gave warning of coming events. A 
converted Jew in Germany, named Pfeffercorn, in 
his eager and mistaken zeal, had obtained a decree for 
the destruction of the Talmud and other Hebrew 
writings; but a scholar of more liberal views, well 
known by the name of Reuchlin, opposed its execu- 
tion. The popish clergy took part with the Jew — 



264 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

it is probable that they had backed him from the be- 
ginning — and Reuchlin was made the object of per- 
secution. At this moment the accomplished Ulric 
von Hutten came to Reuchlin's aid, and composed in 
burlesque Latin a series of letters, in which he ridi- 
cules, with overpowering wit, the ignorance and im- 
moral life of the Romish clergy of that age. In the 
hands of the monks scholastic learning; had been re- 
duced to a very low pitch, and was almost entirely 
confined to a barbarous system of theology. The 
limits of their polite literature were very narrow ; 
for, dignified with the title of grammar or poetry, 
its only object was supposed to be the learning 
to compose doggerel Latin verses, or no less barba- 
rous prose. The now reviving study of the classic 
authors was looked upon with great jealousy by the 
clergy, and it is this feeling which generally furnishes 
materials for Ulric von Hutten's satire. The classical 
writers, and the new scholars who read them, were 
secular poets, and were looked upon as the inveterate 
enemies of the theologians. " Write to me," says one 
of the correspondents in this laughable collection, 
" whether it be necessary for eternal salvation that 
scholars learn grammar from the secular poets, such 
as Yirgil, Tullius, Pliny, and others ; it seems to me 
that this is not a good method of studying." Another 
thus communicates his thoughts and fears on the 
subject: — 

" As I have often written to you, T am grieved 
that this ribaldry (ista ribaldria), namely, the faculty 
of poetry, becomes common, and is spread through 
all provinces and regions. In my time there was 
only one poet, who was called Samuel ; and now, in 
this city alone, there are at least twenty, and they 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 265 

vex us all who hold with the ancients. Lately I 
thoroughly defeated one, who said that scholaris does 
not signify a person who goes to the schools for the 
purpose of learning ; and I said, Ass, will you correct 

the holy doctor who expounded this word ? &c 

It is said here that all the poets will side with doctor 
Reuchlin against the theologians. I wish all the 
poets were there where pepper grows, that they might 
let us go in peace ; for it is to be feared that the 
faculty of arts will perish on account of these poets, 
for they go about saying that the artists [that is, those 
who study in that faculty] seduce youth, and take 
money from them, and will make them bachelors and 
masters, although they know nothing." 

Another gives the following narrative of the trou- 
bles he has drawn on himself in defence of " the 
cause :" — 

" There is here a certain poet, who is called George 
Cibutus, and he is one of the secular poets, and lec- 
tures publicly in poetry, and is in other respects a 
good fellow. But, as you know, these poets, when 
they are not theologians like you, are always finding 
fault with others, and have no respect for the theolo- 
gians. And once, in a party in his house, when we 
were drinking strong beer, and sat till three o'clock, 
and I was moderately drunk, for that beer rose up 
into my head, then there was one there who was not 
a very good friend of mine, and I offered him a cup, 
and he took it. But afterwards he would not return 
the compliment, and thrice I warned him, and he 
would not answer me, but sat silent, and said nothing. 
Then I said to myself: Lo, he despises thee, and is 
proud, and will always confound thee. And I was 
stirred in my anger, and took a cup, and threw it at 

II. N 



266 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

his head. Then that poet was angry at me, and said 
that I had made a disturbance in his house, and said 
I should go out of his house in the devil's name. 
Then I answered : What do I care if you are my 
enemy ? I have got as bad enemies as you, and yet 
I have stood before them. What if you are a poet ? 
I have friends also who are poets, and they are quite 
as good as you, ego bene merdarem in vestram poetriam. 
Do you think I am a fool, or that I was born on a 
tree like an apple ? Then he called me a donkey, and 
said that I never saw a poet. Then I answered 
him, and spoke of you and others. Therefore I pray 
you very earnestly, that you will only write me one 
ditty, which I will show to this poet and others, and 
I will boast that you are my friend, and that you are 
a much better poet than he is." 

Another describes his triumphs over the " secu- 
lars:"— 

" Venerable sir, you must know that I have settled 
at the university of Heidelberg, and that I study in 
theology ; but with this I hear a daily lecture in 
poetry, in which I have begun to profit notably with 
the grace of God, and now I know by heart all the 
fables of Ovid in the { Metamorphoses,' and I know 
how to explain them quadruply, that is, naturally, 
literally, historically, and spiritually, which those 
secular poets do not know. And lately I asked one 
of them the derivation of the name Mavors ? Then 
he told me an opinion which was not true ; but I 
corrected him, and said that he is called Mavors, quasi 
mares vorans, and he was confounded. Then I said, 
What is meant by the nine muses allegorically ? and 
he did not know : and I said that the nine muses 
signify the seven choirs of angels, &c So that 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 267 

you see these poets now only study in their art lite- 
rally, and they do not understand allegories and spi- 
ritual expositions, because they are carnal men." 

The wit of these satires is much heightened by the 
burlesque Latin of the original. They are all sup- 
posed to be written by bigoted Romish partisans, and 
are addressed to Ortuinus Gratius, a stanch defender 
of the party of PfefFercorn. The notions of the 
orthodox "poets" relating to Homer, as given in the 
following letter from a correspondent named Peter, 
are very amusing : — 

il Most excellent sir, inasmuch as you are naturally 
inclined to me, and show much favour to me, I also 
will do my possible for you. Now, you said to me, 
Peter, when you come to Rome, see if there are any 
new books, and send me some. Here you have a 
new book, which is printed in this place. And, be* 
cause you are a poet, I believe that you can improve 
yourself much by it. For I have heard here, in an 
audience from a notary, who ought to be perfect in 
that art, that this book is the fountain of poetry, and 
that its author, who is called Homer, is the father of 
all poets ; and he said that there is still another 
Homer in Greek. Then I said, What is Greek to 
me ? that Latin one is better ; for I want to send 
it to Germany to master Ortuinus, who does not care 
for those Greek fancies. And I inquired of him 
what was contained in the book. He replied, that it 
treats of certain men who are called Greeks, who 
made war upon other men who are called Trojans. 
I think I have heard their name before. And these 
Trojans had a great city, and those Greeks placed 
themselves before the city, and lay there full ten 
years. Then the Trojans sometimes went out to 



268 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

them, and they fought in earnest with them, and they 
killed one another wonderfully, so that the whole 
field was bloody ; and there was a certain water 
which was coloured with blood, and was all red, so 
that it flowed as though it were blood. And a noise 
was heard in the sky, and one threw a stone which 
twelve men could not lift, and a horse began to speak, 
and prophesied. But I do not believe such things, 
for they seem to me impossible ; yet I know not if it 
be a book of much authority. Pray write to me 
about it, and tell me what you think of it." 

Another correspondent gives a description of what 
he saw on his way to Rome : — 

" Next we came to Mantua, and my companion 
said, c Here Virgil was born.' And I answered, 
"What care I for that pagan ? We will go to the 
Carmelites, and see Baptista Mantuanus,* who is 
twice as good as Virgil, as I have heard Ortuinus 
say more than ten times. And I told him how you 
once blamed Donatus, when he says that Virgil was 
the best of poets ; and you said, If Donatus were 
here, I would tell him to his face that he lied, for 
Baptista Mantuanus is above Virgil. And when we 
came to the monastery of the Carmelites, they told 
us that Baptista Mantuanus is dead, and then I said, 
May he rest in peace ! . . . . Afterwards we came to 
some small towns, and one is called Monte Flascon, 
and there Ave drank the best wine I ever tasted in my 
life, and I asked the host what it was called, and he 
said, It is Lacrima Christi. And I said to my com- 
panion, I wish Christ would cry in our country. 
And so we had a good drinking, and after two days 
we entered Borne." 

* A well-known Latin poet of this age. 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 269 

The satire on the doctrine and manners of the 
clergy is equally amusing. The following is a most 
edifying discussion of a case of conscience, which is 
referred to the decision of master Ortuinus : — 

" You told me to write to you, and ask your 
opinion on theological questions, which you can solve 
better than the courtiers at Rome. Now, therefore, 
I ask your mastership what you think of any one 
who on Friday, or any other fast-day, eats an egg 
with a chicken in it? For the other day, in the 
Campo-fiore, we sat in an inn, and made a collation, 
and were eating eggs, and I, opening an egg, saw 
that there was a young chicken in it, and showed it 
to my companion. And he said, 'Eat it quickly 
before the waiter comes, for if he sees it you will 
have to pay for it as though it were a fowl ; for it is 
the custom here that when the waiter puts anything 
on the table, you must pay for it whether you eat it 
or not, for he will not take it back ; and if he see 
that there is a young fowl in the egg } he will say, 
You must pay me for the fowl, for we charge a small 
one the same as a large one.' And immediately I 
swallowed the egg with the chicken in it ; and after- 
wards I recollected that it was Friday, and I said to 
my companion, You have caused me to commit a 
mortal sin, in eating flesh on a Friday. And he said 
that it was not a mortal sin, nor even a venial sin, for 
the chicken is not reckoned as anything but an egg 
until it is born ; and he told me that it is as with 
cheeses, in which there are sometimes grubs, and in 
cherries, and in fresh peas and beans, which are all 
eaten on Fridays, and even on the vigils of the Apos- 
tles. But the waiters are such rascals that they say 
they are flesh, that they may have more money. 



270 ON THE HISTORY OF COMIC LITERATURE 

Then I went away, and thought about it. But, 
master Ortuinus, I am much troubled about it, and 

know not how I ought to proceed It seems to 

me that these young fowls in the eggs are flesh, 
because the matter is formed and figured into the 
members and body of an animal, and has life. It is 
different with grubs in cheeses and fruit, for worms 
are reckoned as fishes, as I have heard from a medi- 
cal man, who is a very good naturalist. Therefore, 
I pray you very earnestly for your opinion, that, if 
you judge it a mortal sin, I may get absolution before 
I return to Germany." 

A zealous Romanist complains of the irreverent 
manners of the people of Mentz, and adds : — 

" Here is one who said that he does not believe 
that the tunic of our Lord at Treves is the tunic of 
our Lord, but that it is an old lousy garment ; and, 
moreover, he does not believe that the hair of the 
blessed Virgin is still in the world. And another 
said that it is possible that the three kings in Cologne 
are three rustics from Westphalia; and that the 
sword and shield of St. Michael never belonged to 
St. Michael. And he also said, quod vellet merdare 
super indulgentias fratrum prcedicatorum, because the 
said friars are buffoons, and deceive women and 
rustics. Then I said, To the fire, to the fire with 
this heretic ! And he laughed at me," &c. &c. 

The details of clerical licentiousness, given by the 
supposed writers of these letters, cannot, consistently 
with propriety, be transferred to our pages. One 
master Conrad writes to master Ortuinus Gratius, 
in terms which we take the liberty of softening down : 
" You wrote to me lately that you had renounced 
absolutely the love of women, except only one or 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 271 

two in a month. I am astonished at this. Did you 
not often tell us that there are greater faults than 
loving? Samson and Solomon loved very much, 
and we are neither stronger than Samson, nor wiser 
than Solomon. Love is charity," &c. Such are the 
famous " Epistohe Obscurorum Virorum," with which 
I will close my sketch of the history of satire before 
the Reformation. The productions of the mediaeval 
comic writers and satirists are not undeserving of 
our attention. They paint to us, more accurately 
than any other documents, the manners and feelings 
of distant ages. Regarding them simply as literary 
compositions, it is necessary to be acquainted with 
them to understand and appreciate fully the writings 
of Rabelais and the other satirists of the Refor- 
mation, who are ranged among the classical writers 
of the sixteenth century. As a part of political 
and intellectual history, the satirical literature of the 
ages we have been reviewing is of the greatest im- 
portance, and it ought to be brought before the 
world. There is a spirit of forge tfulness abroad in 
the present age ; a large portion of the world seems 
no longer to recollect that any one ever discovered 
errors in the Church of Rome, and there are writers 
who paint the middle ages as the very golden age 
of the human race. They were dark ages in all 
the essentials which constitute moral and political 
darkness. 



XXIV. 

ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE OF 

THE REFORMATION. 




HEN the art of printing was first made 
known, it was looked upon only as an 
easy method of multiplying copies of 
manuscripts, and excited the fear of the 
ignorant, who fancied that it was akin to sorcery and 
magic, and the jealousy of a rather numerous class of 
persons who saw that it would deprive them of their 
occupation ; but none probably were aware of the 
might of the new engine which had been thus brought 
into existence, or were capable of foreseeing that "the 
liberty of the press " would one day be a watchword in 
sanguinary wars and mighty revolutions. Until the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, the press was in 
its infancy, a harmless child, which had not yet learnt 
to exercise or feel its strength. It arrived at a 
vigorous maturity at the moment when old systems 
and old creeds, which had moved on thoughtlessly 
through centuries, were tottering on the brink of 
destruction. At this time kings ventured to take 
into their grasp the dangerous weapon — an English 
Henry took up the controversial cudgels against a 
Luther — but they were scared and astounded at 



ON SATIRICAL LITERATURE. 273 

finding that on this new field of combat the proud 
wielders of the sceptres of nations were humbled 
before the single strength even of a simple preacher, 
and they strove to chase away the terrible apparition 
with the weapons which in their hands had been more 
effectual — the axe, and the rope, and the faggot. As 
early as the time of Francis I, when the writings of 
the followers of Luther and Calvin were widely cir- 
culated in France, royal proclamations against libels 
and seditious writings began to make their appearance, 
which were frequently repeated during the following 
reigns, the punishment of offenders being generally 
hanging or burning.* 

A multitude of causes combined to favour the 
spread of the Reformation when it broke out at the 
commencement of the sixteenth century. Among 
these we must reckon the extreme licentiousness of 
the age. The Church of Rome could overlook im- 
morality ; it was brazen-faced enough to be amused 
at the satire which was levelled at its own vices ; it 
was willing to smile even at the flippant ribaldry of 
irreligion ; although it would not pardon any attempt 
at reform. Before the actual outburst of the Refor- 
mation, the press, in Italy and elsewhere, had sent 
forth many books of satire and mockery, which con- 
tained the hostile spirit of the Reformers without 
their religious feeling, but which powerfully shook 
people's faith in the then existing institutions, espe- 
cially among men of letters. This spirit was promoted 
in no small degree by the revival of the study of 

* We may refer our readers, on the political state of the 
press in these ages in France, to an interesting pamphlet by M. 
Leber, " De l'etat real de la Presse et des Pamphlets depuis 
Francois ler jusqu'a Louis XIV." 8vo. Paris, 1834, 

N 2 



274 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

classical literature, which not only enlarged men's 
views and created a love of independent and philoso- 
phical inquiry in theological matters, but, as Lucian 
and other writers of that stamp became favourites, 
furnished precedents and models which were not 
thrown away. We find, accordingly, that most of 
the great scholars of the earlier half of the sixteenth 
century, were either favourers of the new opinions, 
or at least opponents of persecution, a circumstance 
which, at a time when some of the most powerful 
princes of the age were ambitious of surrounding 
themselves with learned men, had no little in- 
fluence in protecting the Reformation at its first 
beginnings. 

We must observe, also, that the spirit of satire, so 
natural to mankind, and at all times a weapon against 
which no armour is entirely proof, found a multitude 
of weak points in the practice and character of the 
Romish system, which for ages had been giving way 
before its repeated attacks. The discordance between 
the lives and doctrines of the priesthood was an un- 
failing source of ridicule. The extravagant preten- 
sions of the Church — its inherent vices — many of its 
favourite doctrines, were equally absurd and profane. 
No doctrine that has ever been broached in the world 
could lead to greater and more supremely ridiculous 
absurdities than that of transubstantiation, even as 
treated in the monkish writers, who are full of stories 
which are too satirically disgusting to repeat at the 
present day ; what, therefore, must they be in the 
hands of the witty scoffer ! They became matters of 
scornful jest between the reformer and the catholic, 
even in the daily intercourse of life. We may quote 
an example which is said to have occurred in a town 



OF THE REFORMATION. 275 

in France at the time of the earlier religious troubles 
in that country. It was the custom among the zea- 
lous Catholics, when the consecrated host was carried 
to or from church in procession, to bare their heads, 
fall on their knees, and worship it as it passed. One 
day two such processions issued at the same moment 
from churches on the opposite sides of the street, as a 
man of some weight by his station and learning, hated 
by the Catholics as an obstinate and able leader of the 
Huguenots, came by. The fearless Reformer kept 
his upright position, with his hat on his head. The 
leader of one of the processions, a violent and perse- 
cuting priest, approached him fiercely and said, 
<e Impious man, why dost thou not fall down and wor- 
ship thy Creator, the God whom we carry ? " The 
Huguenot looked for a moment at the priest and at 
the two processions, and then deliberately inquired, 
" Which of the two ? " The priest was utterly con- 
founded by this unexpected question, rejoined his 
procession without replying, and continued his way.* 
The ignorance and vulgarity of a large portion of 
the popish clergy, and the slovenly and inefficient 
manner in which they often performed their duties, 
furnished a constant subject of ridicule. Probably 
not less than a third of the popular jokes of the six- 
teenth century, turned on the character of the clergy ; 

* Most of the stories, whether Monkish or Reformist, will 
hardly bear translating. We may venture to give one example of 
the former in illustration : "Rustica anserem in quoddam oppi- 
dum vendendum sub brachio portans, primum est templum in- 
gressa, atque cum ibi tunc sacra fierent, accessit et ipsa cum 
ansere ad altare, perceptura a sacerdote hostiam, quam anser 
illi incaute praeripuit atque devoravit, quod ilia flendo sacer- 
doti conqueritur. Cui sacerdos, Noli, inquit, flere, dabo tibi 
alium Deum" 



276 ON THE SATIEICAL LITERATURE 

such, for instance, as those of the illiterate priest who, 
finding salta per tria (i. e. skip over three leaves) 
written at the bottom of a page in his mass-book, de- 
liberately jumped down three of the steps before the 
altar, to the no small astonishment of the congrega- 
tion ; of another who, finding the title of the day's 
service indicated only by the abbreviation, Re, read 
the mass of the Requiem, instead of the service of the 
Resurrection ; of one who, being so illiterate as to be 
unable to pronounce readily the long words in his 
ritual, always omitted them, and pronounced the 
word Jesus, which he said was much more devotional; 
and a host of other stories of a similar character. 
Even the service of the catholic church was not 
unfrequently turned to ridicule in popular songs, of 
which but a few specimens now remain. One of the 
most curious of these is a ballad against the mass, 
written in France, in 1562, and directed to be sung 
to the popular tune of " Hari, hari, l'ame."* After 
giving a burlesque description of the introductory 
ceremonies, and telling how the priest sat for the 
intro'it and the Epistle, the song informs us that he 
then reads a legend in Latin, "for fear it should be 
understood : " — 

" Puis une legende 
En prose, en Latin, 
De peur qu'on n'entende 
Tout son patelin 
Du sainct qu'il lui plaist." 

He then takes a bit of the Gospel, and shows his 
skill in cutting and mutilating it: — 

* These songs are printed in Le Roux de Lincy's " Reeueil 
de Chants Historiques." 



OF THE REFORMATION. 277 

" Du sainct Evangile 
II prend quelque endroit, 
Qu'il couppe et mutile. 
Comme il est adroit 
De faire tel faict ! " 

After sneering in the same manner at the worship 
of saints, &c. the song goes on to state that the priest 
causes his followers next to worship a piece of bread, 
which "he breaks and devours:" — 

" Un morceau de paste 
II fait adorer, 
Le rompt de sa patte 
Pour le devorer, 
Le gourmand qu'il est ! " 

The god of the priest is described as undergoing 
still greater indignities : — 

" Le dieu qu'il fait faire, 
La bouche le prend, 
Le cceur le digere, 
Le venture le rend 
Au fons du retrait." 

And in the same style this bold song, composed in 
the midst of violent persecutions, is continued to the 
end. Twenty years before the date of this composi- 
tion, a song written in 1542, against the abuses of 
priests, monks, and shaven (" des abus des prestres, 
moines, et rasez"), begins with the following vigorous 
declamation against the Church of Home : — 

" O gras tondus, 
Mai avez este secourus : 
Long-temps y a. 
Vos grans abus 
On le verra. 



278 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

Vostre autel est mine, 
Vostre regne est bien mine, 

H tombera. 
Papistes, pharisiens, 
Vostre Antechrist et les siens 

Trebuchera." 

The Gospel, which the papists had so long banished, 
was now returned ; and would drive away all their 
evil devices, and their bread-god would become 
mouldy by disuse : — 

" L'Evangile que haissez, 
Quand aurez fait plus qu'assez, 

Demo-urera. 
Vous l'avez long-temps banny, 
Mais puisquil est reveny, 
Vostre jolj pain benict 
Se moysira." 

The satirising and reforming spirit of the age ap- 
peared not unfrequently on the stage — in the rude 
performances which then made pretensions to the 
title of the drama. The theatre in Italy, much more 
perfect at this period than in the other countries of 
Western or Southern Europe, but cynically licentious 
in its representations, had been for years in the habit 
of exhibiting to public ridicule, with impunity, the 
worst vices of society, and of attacking indiscrimin- 
ately the weaknesses of Church and State, and had 
probably set the example, in this respect, to other 
countries. A singularly bold satirical play, or mo- 
rality (as such compositions were then called), attack- 
ing most unsparingly the vices of the Romish Church 
and of its ministers, and impressing on men's minds 
the necessity and expedience of a speedy reformation, 
was written in Scotland as early as the year 1536, by 
Sir David Lindsay, under the title of " The Parlia- 



OF THE EEFORMATION. 279 

ment of Correction, or a pleasant satire of the three 
Estates," and is known to have been exhibited there 
in the beginning of the year 1540. Dramatic pieces 
of the same description were composed in England, 
a little later, by John Bale, and others. Every 
reader of D' Aubigne's " History of the Eeformation," 
is acquainted with an analysis that writer has given 
of a satirical play on the avarice of the Romish priest- 
hood, performed in Berne, in Switzerland, in 1526. 
Moralities like those above mentioned, and falling 
not far short of them in the boldness with which they 
censured the then existing state of things, were com- 
mon in France in the earlier part of the same century, 
and their licentious raillery was shielded under the 
joyous personages of mother " Folie," grandmother 
" Sottise," and the like, whence such compositions 
became more generally known under the title of 
(i Sottises."* Such a " Sottise " was performed at 
Geneva on the first Sunday in Lent, 1523, which 
there can be no doubt bore allusion to the dawning 
reformation. Mother Folie is introduced lamenting 
the loss of her husband, Bon temps (Good Times), 
when suddenly the post from Geneva brings her 
news of him. He is not dead, but he writes that he 
is dwelling at a couple of leagues' distance from 
Paradise, that he is in good health, and that he will 
return when justice shall have its free course, and 
there will be no danger of being hanged unjustly. 
Mother Folie calls together her friends, and reads 
them her husband's letter, and they are filled with 
joy. The piece ends by their all sitting down to 
drink, in order to pass the time till Bontemps's return. 

* See the Essay on the History of the Drama in the present 
volume. 



280 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

Hard truths were told under the cover of mere mirth ; 
and, accordingly, when a second part of the Sottise 
was performed at the same place on the second 
Sunday in Lent, 1524, the duke and duchess of 
Savoy, who happened to be there, and were to have 
been present at the representation, kept away, be- 
cause they had been informed that the actors were 
heretics. In this second piece, Mother Folie is re- 
presented as being dead, and Grandmother Sottise 
recommends each of her children to learn a trade or 
profession, and she conducts them to the World (au 
Monde). The World examines them all, and finds 
some fault in each of them. Suddenly the World is 
taken ill, goes to consult a doctor, and confesses that 
his sickness is caused by the sinister predictions which 
are everywhere in circulation. " Is that all which 
troubles you ? " cries the doctor, and he goes on in 
a strain which exhibits at once the spirit of the 
piece : — 

" Monde, tu ne te troubles pas 
De voir ces hommes attrapards 
Vendre et acheter benefices ; 
Les enfans en bras des nourrices 
Estre abbes, evesques, prieurs, 
Chevaucher tres bien les deux soeurs, 
Tuer les gens pour leur plaisirs," &c. 

The piece concludes by the World being clad in the 
garb of a fool. These two pieces were printed at 
Lyons, which was a stronghold of the party of the 
Reformers until after the terrible massacres which 
took place there in the religious wars. An equally 
courageous satire against the court of Rome, — the 
nlay of the " Prince des Sots, or Mere Sotte," by the 
celebrated Pierre Gringore, in which Mere Sotte 



OF THE REFORMATION. 281 

represents the Church of Rome, was performed at 
Paris in 1511. The license given to pieces of this 
character at this period is explained by the circum- 
stance, that France and Rome were at war, and that 
the French court feared much less from the chance 
of an approaching reformation, than from the secular 
ambition of the popes. 

From her particular position in the political world, 
France became during the sixteenth century the 
battle-field of the Reformation; and it is to the 
literature of that country that we shall chiefly restrict 
our remarks. The advocates of the new opinions 
acted there with more boldness, because they could 
easily find a refuge from persecution in Italy or in 
Switzerland, and from the latter country — which has 
been termed the arsenal of the Reformation — they 
no less easily inundated France with their writings. 

Many of the learned Frenchmen of the age of 
Francis I. were more or less compromised in the 
Reformation, and were subsequently persecuted for 
their opinions. The most remarkable of these were 
assembled at the court of the beautiful and witty 
Queen of Navarre, who at that period prided herself no 
less upon her scepticism in religious opinions, than 
upon her literary taste. Others, such as Beza, Pierre 
Yiret, Varel, &c. took their stand more openly and 
decidedly in the ranks of Luther and Calvin. Se- 
veral anonymous satirical publications have been 
attributed to Beza, but, as it appears, with little 
reason. In 1542, Erasmus Albertus, a Lutheran 
minister, published in Latin the celebrated "Alcoran 
des Cordeliers,'' which was frequently reprinted in 
Latin and in French, and which may in some mea- 
sure be considered as taking the lead among the 



282 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

earlier satirical treatises of the bond-fide reformers. 
It was more especially directed against the " Liber 
Conformitatum," or the Book of Conformities between 
St. Francis and our Saviour ; and consists of a se- 
lection of absurd miracles and legends from that 
book, the object being to prove from it, that Christ 
was a mere precursor of St. Francis, who was to the 
Cordeliers what Mahommed was to the Mussulmans, 
or, as Luther expresses it in the " Letter to the 
Christian Reader " prefixed, " Hinc sequitur, quod 
Christus veluti figura Francisci, nihil sit amplius ; id 
quod et Turci sentiunt." In 1552, Pierre Yiret, in a 
work full of the bitterest satire, entitled "La Physique 
Papale," undertook to prove that the ceremonies and 
rites of the Romish Church were nothing but pa- 
ganism. In this book, which is composed in the form 
of dialogues, Viret finds the Roman catholic purga- 
tory in the pagan writers of antiquity, he laughs at 
the various virtues of holy water, declares that the 
priests had rivalled the discovery of the philosopher's 
stone, by the facility with which they turned bene- 
fices, indulgences, &c. into money; and compares 
the scandalous lives of the monks with the orgies of 
the priests of Cybele. Pierre Viret published several 
other books of the same stamp, most of which were 
printed at Geneva. In France, books of this de- 
scription were the subject of strict prohibition, and 
the writers were exposed to cruel persecutions, even 
when their productions were of a much less hardy 
character. Etienne Dolet, a rich and learned printer 
of Lyons, who had introduced the philosophical man- 
ner of reasoning of the platonists, was burnt alive 
for atheism, at Paris, in 1546. In a poetical com- 
plaint, written while in prison, he deprecates the 
vengeance of his theological persecutors : — 



OF THE REFORMATION. 283 

" Quand on m'aura ou brusle, ou pendu, 
Mis sur la roue, et en quartiers fendu, 
Qu'en sera-t-il ? ce sera un corps mort ! 

Las ! toutefois n'aurait-on nul remord ? 

* * * * 

Ung homme est-il de valeur si petite, 

Sitot muni de science et vertu, 

Pour estre, ainsi qu'une paille ou festu, 

Annihile ? Fait-on si peu de conipte 

D'ung noble esprit qui mainte autre surnionte ?" 

The celebrated poet, Clement Marot, for similar 
opinions, was obliged to fly from a similar fate, and 
spent some of the best years of his life in exile. 
The most remarkable satirists of this age, however, 
are to be found not among the open Protestants, but 
amongst the scoffers, and of these the first in date and 
in rank was Rabelais. 

What we know of the life of Francois Rabelais, 
pictures him to us as a restless-minded, though joy- 
ous and witty person, greedy of learning, and not less 
so of novelty. He was born about the year 1483, 
and became a monk of the Franciscan order, in the 
convent of Fontenay-le-Comte, in Poitou, where he 
excited the jealousy and hatred of his more illiterate 
brethren by studying Greek and other suspected 
branches of learning. Having carried his contempt 
for their ignorance beyond the bounds of prudence, 
he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the 
subterranean dungeons of the convent, from which, 
however, he was saved by the interference of some of 
his secular friends. He had in the sequel sufficient 
influence to procure, in 1524, an indult of pope 
Clement VII, authorizing him to change his order 
for the more learned one of the Benedictines; but 
instead of taking the habit, he embraced the life of a 



284 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

secular priest, and attached himself to the person of 
GeofFroi d'Estissac, bishop of Maillezais, a distin- 
guished patron of learned men, who made him his 
secretary. Among the scholars who assembled at the 
bishop's table, he met many favourers of the Refor- 
mation, and he took little pains to conceal his own 
contempt for the Church of Rome and its monks. 
" Some," says an old writer, " say that he became a 
Lutheran, and others that he became an atheist." He 
formed at this period an acquaintance with Calvin, 
who, like himself, was distinguished by his love of 
Greek literature. At this moment a rigorous perse- 
cution of innovators in religious matters excited by 
the catholic clergy in 1530, cast a gloom over the 
literary society in which Rabelais moved. Clement 
Marot was prosecuted for eating bacon in Lent. 
Bonaventure des Periers was denounced as an atheist 
by the abbot of St. Evroul, for words which he had 
uttered in unguarded conversation. Others were 
threatened ; and Louis Berquin, accused of Luther- 
anism, was condemned to the stake by the parliament 
of Paris, and burnt along with his writings on the 
13th of April, 1530. Terrified by this event, many 
concealed their opinions, or withdrew themselves for 
a time from public view; others sought safety in 
exile ; Rabelais went to Montpellier, and devoted all 
his energies to the study of medicine. In 1532 he 
changed his residence to Lyons, invited probably by 
his friend Etienne Dolet, and commenced his literary 
career, by editing Greek and Latin authors. Popular 
tradition informs us that these literary labours were 
not successful. The sale of an edition of some of the 
writings of Hippocrates and Galen, is said to have 
been too small to repay the expenses of printing, and 



OF THE REFORMATION. 285 

Rabelais, to indemnify his publisher, and to revenge 
himself on the bad taste of the public, gave to the 
world, before the end of the year 1532, the first sketch 
of the burlesque romance of Gargantua, under the 
title of "Chronique Gargantuine," the object of which 
(if any) appears to have been to turn to ridicule the 
romances of chivalry, which then enjoyed great popu- 
larity. In the following year appeared the first 
sketch of " Pantagruel." The success of these publi- 
cations was extraordinary, and led him to modify and 
enlarge them, making them the frame-work of a keen 
and searching satire on the vices of the church and 
of society at large. 

To understand the real character of the burlesque 
writings of Rabelais, we ought to be well acquainted 
with the older satirical literature of the middle ages, 
of which the histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel 
present in some measure a compendium. Rabelais 
represents en grand that spirit of mockery at the 
church which issued from its own bosom, and which, 
even when the standard of the reformation had been 
unfurled, the church could hardly resolve to prosecute. 
A multitude of burlesque tracts, quite in the character 
of Gargantua, had been issuing from the French 
printing-offices almost from the first introduction, of 
the art into that country ; and they continued to 
enjoy a very extensive popularity under the comic 
pseudonymes of Bruscambille, Turlupin, Jacques 
Bonhomme, &c. during the whole of the sixteenth 
and part of the seventeenth centuries. Rabelais 
differed chiefly from the writers of these pieces by 
the superiority of his genius and his extensive erudi- 
tion. It was an error of his editors in later times to 
suppose that his work was a romantic history of his 



286 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

age., and that all the actors in the public transactions 
of the day were represented under his burlesque 
heroes. Rabelais appears to have commenced with- 
out any fixed plan ; the strokes of personal satire 
were evidently after- thoughts, which struck him as he 
proceeded, but the satirical aim of the whole is general 
and not particular, in this respect resembling the 
more ancient satires of "Reynard" and "Piers Plough- 
man." The satirical character of Pantagruel appears 
to have increased with the publication of each suc- 
cessive portion, until it required all the influence of 
the author's powerful friends in church and state to 
secure him the liberty to write with impunity. The 
law, the overbearing and unlearned theologians, the 
persecuting Sorbonne, the intriguing ecclesiastics, and 
above all the licentious grovelling monks, became in 
turn the butt of his ridicule. The latter were the 
objects of his special hatred. In the conclusion of 
his second book, he speaks of them' as " a great rabble 
of squint-minded fellows, dissembling and counterfeit 
saints, demure lookers, hypocrites, pretended zealots, 
tough friars, buskin monks, and other such sects of 
men, who disguise themselves like maskers to deceive 
the world ; for whilst they give the common people 
to understand that they are busied about no- 
thing but contemplation and devotion in fastings, and 
maceration of their sensuality — and that only to 
sustain and aliment the small frailty of their hu- 
anity : it is so far otherwise, that, on the contrary, 
God knows what cheer they make ; et curios simu- 
lant, sed Bacchanalia vivunt. You may read it in 
great letters in the colouring of their red snouts and 
gulching bellies as big as a tun." And in the pro- 
logue to the third book : " Get you back, hypocrites ; 



OF THE REFORMATION. 287 

to your sheep, dogs ; get you gone, you dissemblers 
in the devil's name. Hay ! what are you there yet? 
I renounce my part of Papimania, if I snap you — ! " 
The monks and doctors in theology set up a cry of 
fury on the appearance of this third book, which they 
denounced as an abominable heap of impieties. There 
were not wanting persons to accuse its author of 
direct atheism. In defence he urged his professional 
character of a physician, declared that his writings 
were only intended to exhilarate and console the sick, 
and branded his monkish caluminators with the ex- 
pressive and energetic appellations of " cafards, cagots, 
matagots, bottineurs, burgjts, patepelues, porteurs de 
rogatons, chatemites, vrais diables engiponnes" words 
the force of which it would be impossible to render 
in English. Rabelais found protection in the manners 
of the age. A kind of secret society, a jovial free- 
masonry, appears to have been formed by the influ- 
ence of his writings, which was joined by numbers 
of young nobles and gentlemen who had been gained 
by the libertinism and scepticism of the poets, and 
who became known by the name of Pantagruelists. 
" Chacun s*est voulu meler de Pantagruelisei ','' says 
Du Verdier, who was nearly a contemporary; and 
Rabelais himself, in a nouveau prologue to his fourth 
book, defines Pantagruelism as a certaine gaiete oV esprit 
confite en mepris des choses fortuites. In fact there is 
the same strong taint of Epicureanism in the philo- 
sophy of Rabelais, which appears so constantly in 
the court poets of the voluptuous age of Francis I. 
Even Clement Marot, who subsequently became a 
declared Protestant, was then a Pantagruelist, and 
did not hesitate to proclaim the practical advantages 
of the abbey of Theleme : — 



288 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

" S'on nous laissat nos jours en paix user, 
Du temps present a plaisir disposer, 
Et librenient vivre comme il faut vivre, 
Palais et cours ne nous faudroit plus suivre ; 
Plaids ne proces, ne les riches maisons, 
Avec leur gloire et enfuines blasons. 
Mais, sous belle ombre, en chambre et galeries, 
JSTous pourmenans, livres et railleries, 
Dames et bains, seroient les passetemps, 
Lieux, et labeurs de nos esprits contens." 

The Protestants were entirely disappointed in Ra- 
belais. From the boldness with which the writers of 
his school attacked the errors of Rome, they expected 
to see them join in the work of reformation, but they 
soon found that they were scoffers and not reformers ; 
that, in fact, they were of those who, to use the words 
of the poet — 

" Bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, 
And still revolt when truth would set them free ; 
Licence they mean when the y cry Liberty ; 
For who loves that must first be wise and good." 

The Reformers were disgusted by the mixture of 
obscenity and libertinism which characterized their 
writings; and their disappointment was complete 
when they saw Rabelais himself accept a benefice 
from the Church of Rome, and become cure of 
Meudon. Calvin had strongly expressed his dissatis- 
faction at the conduct of his friend in his book e( De 
Scandalis," which gave so much offence to the satirist 
that, in his fourth book, he classed with the matagots, 
cagots, et papelards, who had so often been the object 
of his ridicule before, " Les demoniacles Calvins, im- 
posteurs de Geneve." 

The most remarkable writer of the school of scep- 
tics which had been formed at the court of the Queen 
of Navarre, was Bonaventure des Periers, who had 



OF THE REFORMATION. 289 

succeeded Clement Marot as valet-de-chambre of that 
princess, in 1536. When she was no longer able to 
defend the poet from the persecutions of his enemies, 
Des Periers marked his sentiments in favour of his 
predecessor, who had fled to Geneva, by his " Apo- 
logie pour Marot absent, contre Saon," printed at 
Lyons, in 1537 ; and in the same year he caused to 
be printed, under the strictest secrecy, and without 
any name of author, his " Cymbalum Mundi." This 
work, a model of French composition, consists of 
four dialogues, in the style and spirit of Lucian 
(whom he has imitated with great success), the inter- 
locutors being evidently intended to represent living 
persons (among whom was Clement Marot himself), 
whose names are concealed by anagrams and other 
devices. The scepticism of the author is apparent 
throughout — he sneers at the Romish Church as an 
imposture, ridicules the Protestants as seekers after 
the philosopher's stone, and even treats Christianity 
with contempt. It is clear enough that Des Periers 
was not a reformer: — his book was the strongest de- 
claration that had been made of the Epicurean prin- 
ciples of the school to which he belonged. It was 
secretly printed at Paris by Jean Morin, in the Rue 
St. Jacques — the immediate vicinity of the Sorbonne; 
but some information of its character had undoubt- 
edly been made public, for the whole impression was 
seized at the printer's, on the 6th of March, 1538, and 
Jean Morin was thrown into prison. In the entry on 
the registers of the parliament, it is stated that the 
inquisitor " had caused his shop to be searched, and 
had found several unwise and erroneous books in it, 
which had come from Germany, especially from Cle- 
ment Marot, which were prepared for the press and 
II. o 



290 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

intended to have been printed. He said, also, that 
some theologians had warned him that there were at 
present in this city several foreign printers and book- 
sellers, who sold only books which contained erroneous 
opinions, which it was necessary to look to immedi- 
ately." The printer of the " Cymbalum " was treated 
with rigour, and it is probable that he disclosed the 
name of the author ; the book was publicly burnt. 
Bonaventure des Periers retired to Lyons, where 
another edition was published, which also was burnt ; 
and the author, terrified by the pursuits which were 
instituted against him, put an end to his own life, 
apparently, in the year 1539. This book had given 
equal oifence to the Protestants and to the Catholics. 

Des Periers is said by some to have had a principal 
hand in the composition of the " Heptameron," or 
collection of tales published under the name of the 
queen of Navarre. A collection of tales was pub- 
lished under his own name a few years after his 
death, which there can be no doubt were his compo- 
sitions, under the title of " Les Contes, ou les Nou- 
velles Recreations et Joyeux Devis de Bonaventure 
des Periers." It is one of the best story-books of 
that age, and, as might be expected, is full of traits 
of satire against the monks and priests, who appear 
here, as in the Protestant satirists, in the character of 
ignorant voluptuaries. As an example, we may give 
one of his anecdotes of the cure of Brou : — 

" This cure had a way of his own to chant the dif- 
ferent offices of the church ; and above all he disliked 
the way of saying the Passion in the manner it was 
ordinarily said in churches, and he chanted it quite 
differently. For when our Lord said anything to 
the Jews, 01 Pilate, he made him talk high and loud, 






OF THE REFORMATION. 291 

so that everybody could hear him. And when it was 
the Jews or somebody else who spoke, he spoke so 
low, that he could scarcely be heard at all. 

" It happened that a lady of rank and importance, 
on her way to Chateaudun to keep there the festival 
of Easter, passed through Brou on Good Friday, 
about ten o'clock in the morning, and wishing to hear 
service, she went to the church where the cure was 
officiating. When it came to the Passion, he said it 
in his own manner, and made the whole church ring 
again when he said Quern quceritls? But when it 
came to the reply, Jesum Nazarenum, he spoke as low 
as he possibly could. And in this manner he con- 
tinued the Passion. The lady who was very devout, 
and, for a woman, well-informed in the Holy Scrip- 
tures and attentive to the ecclesiastical ceremonies, 
felt scandalised at this mode of chanting, and wished 
she had never entered the church. She had a mind 
to speak to the cure, and tell him what she thought 
of it ; and for this purpose sent for him to come to 
her after the service. When he was come, she said 
to him, e Monsieur le Cure, I don't know where you 
have learnt to officiate on a day like this, when the 
people ought to be all humility. But to hear you 
perform the service, is enough to drive away any 
body's devotion.' ' How so, madame ?' said the cure. 
f How so ? ' said she, ( you have said a Passion con- 
trary to all rules of decency. When our Lord speaks 
you cry as if you were in the town-hall; and when it 
is a Caiaphas, or a Pilate, or the Jews, you speak softly 
like a young bride. Is this becoming in one like you ? 
are you fit to be a cure ? If you had what you de- 
serve, you would be turned out of your benefice, and 
then you would be made to know your fault!' 



292 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

When the curate had very attentively listened to her, 
( Is this what you had to say to me, niadame ? ' said he. 
( By my soul ! it is very true, what they say ; and the 
truth is, that there are many people who talk of things 
which they do not understand. Madame, I believe 
that I know my office as well as another, and I beg 
all the world to know that God is as well served in 
this parish according to its condition as in any place 
within a hundred leagues of it. I know very well 
that the other cures chant the Passion quite differ- 
ently ; I could easily chant it like them if I would ; 
but they don't understand their business at all. I 
should like to know if it becomes those rogues of 
Jews to speak as loud as our Lord ? No, no, madame ; 
rest assured that in my parish it is my will that God 
be the master, and He shall be as long as I live ; and 
let the others do in their parishes according to their 
understanding.' " 

Perhaps we may be pardoned for giving another 
sample of the same material. 

" There was a priest of a village who was as proud 
as might be, because he had seen a little more than 
his Cato ; for he had read ' De Syntaxi? and his 
c Fauste precor gelida?* And this made him set up 
his feathers and talk very grand, using words that 
filled his mouth, in order to make people think him a 
great doctor. Even at confession he made use of 
terms which astonished the poor people. One day he 
was confessing a poor working man, of whom he 
asked, ' Here, now, my friend, tell me, art thou not 
ambitious ? ' The poor man said no, thinking this 
was a word which belonged to great lords, and almost 

* The commencement of the first eclogue of Baptista Mantuanus. 



OF THE REFORMATION. 293 

repented of having come to confess to this priest; 
for he had already heard that he was such a great 
clerk, and that he spoke so grandly, that nobody un- 
derstood him, which he now knew by this word 
ambitious ; for although he might have heard it some- 
where, yet he did not know at all what it was. The 
priest went on to ask, i Art thou a fornicator ? ' 
' No,' said the labourer, who understood as little as 
before. e Art thou not a gourmand? ' said the priest. 
'No.' ' Art thou not superbe (proud)?' ' No.' 
e Art thou not iracund?' ( No.' The priest, seeing 
the man answer always e no,' was somewhat surprised. 
' Art thou not concupiscent ? ' ( No.' e And what 
art thou, then ? ' said the priest. * I am,' said he, 
( a mason : here is my trowel ! ' " 

The persecutions directed against Marot, Des Pe- 
riers, and others, broke up and scattered the literary 
society which had been kept together by the smiles 
of the queen of Navarre, and with them the class of 
literature which they especially represented lost its 
eclat. The numerous story-tellers and " pantagrue- 
lian" writers of the following age are now consigned 
to the shelves of the bibliomaniac; they are most of 
them beneath criticism, and were evidently intended 
for no very elegant class of readers. Among the ex- 
ceptions, we must not overlook the productions of 
Noel du Fail, a gentleman of Britany, lord of La 
Herissaye, who published, under the anagram of his 
name, in or before 1548, his " Propos Rustiques ; " 
in the same year, his " Baliverneries ; ou, Contes 
Nouveaux d'Eutrapel ; " and at a later period, after 
his death, appeared the " Contes et Discours d'Eu- 
trapel." This last is perhaps his most finished work ; 
at times we perceive an attempt at imitating B-abelais ; 



294 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

the Roniish clergy make no creditable figure in his fa- 
cetious stories, some of which are licentious enough ; 
but he had taken warning by the suffering of his 
more unfortunate brethren, and he commences his 
last-mentioned work by a kind of profession of the 
orthodoxy of his religion, and ends it with a zealous 
tirade against all atheists and those who live inatten- 
tive to God. 

While the scoffing followers of Rabelais were thus 
undermining the influence of the church among the 
higher orders of society, the party which supported 
the Protestant reformers were not inactive among the 
middle and lower classes ; and besides preaching and 
the distribution of religious tracts, we find the satirical 
songs against the Romanists increasing in number 
and bitterness as we approach the period of the great 
troubles and massacres. From the perishable nature 
of these productions, and the care that was taken to 
suppress them, the number of those which now exist 
is naturally small. But we perceive easily that they 
became more violent as the religious parties were 
constantly dragged more and more into identity with 
the political distractions of the kingdom. This be- 
comes strongly apparent when the ambitious family 
of Guise raised itself upon the ruin of the monarchy, 
on the death of Henry II, in 1559. The severe 
epigram which was written on that occasion, found 
many a tongue to repeat it : — 

" Le feu roi devina ce point, 
Que ceux de la maison de Guise 
Mettroient ses enfans en pourpoint, 
Et son pauvre peuple en chemise." 

To give more vogue to their productions, the Hugue- 
not song-writers parodied the words of popular airs, 



OF THE REFORMATION. 295 

in a manner which is sometimes grotesque in the ex- 
treme. A song on the champion of the French 
Protestants, the Prince de Conde, in 1563, after the 
victory at Dreux, was thus composed to the air: — 

" Ce petit homme tant joly 
Tousjours devise et tousjours rit, 
Et tousjours baise sa mignonne ; 
Dieu gard' de mal le petit homme ! " 

and commences, — 

" Le petit homme a si bien fait, 
Qu'a, la parfin il a deffait 
Les abus du pape de Eomme ; 
Dieu gard' de mal le petit homme ! 
Ce petit homme tant joly," &c. 

The song celebrates the anti-papist exploits of the 
chiefs of the party of the "petit homme," and goes 
on to tell us that, — 

" Le petit homme estoit venu 
Dedans Paris, ou est cogneu 
Ennemi du pape de Romme ; 
Dieu gard' de mal le petit homme ! 

" Les cocus qui etoient dedans, 
Armez de fer jusques aux dens 
Deffendans le pape de Romme, — 
Dieu gard', &c. 

" N'oserent se mettre dehors ; 
Car on les eux tuez tous mors, 
Nonobstant le pape de Rome. 
Dieu gard," &c. 

It concludes with a thanksgiving for the success which 
had attended the cause, — 

" Apres tant de belliqueux faits, 
Le roy nous a donne la paix 
En depit du pape de Romme ; 
Dieu gard' de mal le petit homme ! 



296 ON THE SATIKICAL LITERATURE 

" Loue soit Dieu, qui, des hauts cieux, 
Nous donne ce bien precieux ! 
Remercie soit de tout honime 
Detestant le pape de Romme ! " 

The <( petit horome" was slain in 1569, when in arms 
for the Protestant cause; and his death was made 
the subject of a song by one of the Catholic party, 
who represents (somewhat unfoundedly) his princess 
lamenting the pretended evil counsels of the party of 
whom he had been one of the principal leaders. She 
is made to say, — 

" Or le grand vice de ceste loi nouvelle [the Protestant faith] 
Contre son roy l'avoit mise en querelle, 
Luy promettant tousjours le maintenir, 
Mais a la charge vous prinste a fuyr." 

" Et vous, ministres, avec vos faces pales, 
Vous estes cause de malheurs et diffames. 
Vous luy disiez : monseigneur, sans esmoy 
Nous mourrons tous, ou nous vous ferons roy." 

The Catholics were not, indeed, behindhand with 
their adversaries in spreading abroad popular songs 
and libels ; but satire is a weapon which in general 
tells with less effect in the hands of the persecutor 
than in those of the persecuted. Those who burn 
people seldom laugh at them, for if they did laugh at 
them they could not burn them afterwards with the 
same good grace. The French Anti-Protestant sati- 
rical writings of the sixteenth century are in general 
mere collections of vulgar insults and scandalous 
calumnies. The only accusation which the Papists 
brought with any appearance of reason against the 
Huguenots, was that of troubling the peace of the 
kingdom ; and this cry was raised against them long 
before they could in any way be looked upon as the 
aggressors. A song composed as early as the year 



OF THE REFORMATION. 297 

1525, warns the "bons Francoys'' against the " mes- 
chans Lutheriens mauldis;" and there are still pre- 
served as rarities several collections of songs against 
the Huguenots, composed during the troubles of the 
age of Charles IX, all breathing the spirit we have 
alluded to, with such burdens as, — 

" Cessez voz grands saults, 
Mastins Huguenots ! " 

and some of them even vaunting and exulting over 
the horrible massacres which were then the order of 
the day in that unhappy country. The attempt was 
still more vain, of some of the Catholic satirists, to 
charge the Protestant preachers with the same vices 
and irregularities for which the monks and priests had 
made themselves too notorious. We may merely 
cite as a remarkable specimen of this mode of attack- 
ing the Protestants, the tract entitled "Passevent 
Parisien respondant a Pasquin Kommain de la vie de 
ceulx qui. . . se disent vivre selon la reformation de 
l'Evangile," printed, probably at Lyons, in 1556. 
This scandalous tract has been attributed to Anthoine 
Cathelan, a French Cordelier, who left his convent, 
and went to Geneva in company with a prostitute, in 
1556, but his real character being discovered, he was 
discarded by the Protestant leaders. He then be- 
haved himself so disgracefully that he was obliged to 
return hastily to France, to escape being publicly 
flogged, and there he made his peace with the Ca- 
tholics by writing libels against Calvin and the other 
preachers of the reform. The book of which we are 
speaking is composed in the form of a dialogue ; 
Pasquin of Rome asks, " How do the Evangelicals 
live ? " The reply is, " They call one another brothers 
and sisters." " Is it true that they all marry ? " 

O 2 



298 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

" They have each a wife in public, and in private as 
many as they like." " Tell me then, how does the 
venerable Calvin live?" "He kept in his house 
during five years a nun of Albi, at two ecus a month, 
to make his bed. In the fifth year, the nun finding 
herself four months advanced with child, M. de 
Rocayrols, formerly canon of Albi, and her favourite, 
was obliged to come to Geneva and marry her, on 
pain of being accused by Calvin in his country as a 
Lutheran. Calvin accompanied the nun to Lausanne 
disguised as a courier de paste, and the marriage cere- 
mony was performed in the church served by Yiret, 
while Calvin went to preach at Neufchatel in Farel's 
church ! " All the most distinguished reformers are 
treated in the same style. Every one knew that 
these were impudent lies ; but they had their use in 
exciting the vulgar against the Huguenot preachers. 
Such base personal accusations against the best of 
men were very common in this demoralised age. 
Men of higher character and position in the world 
than ribald monks did not hesitate to employ such 
means to decry and abase their opponents. The 
Catholics scrupled not to accuse the Protestants in 
general of joining in horrible orgies, with all the 
disgusting particulars of the supposed Sabbaths of 
the sorcerers, or those which were laid (perhaps with 
no better reason) to the charge of some of the worst 
heresies of the primitive church; and they diligently 
spread about the report that their preachings, which 
their persecutors obliged them to hold in private, 
were secret meetings for debauch and libertinism, in 
order thus to incite and give a colour to the outrages 
to which they were afterwards exposed. We are in- 
formed by a contemporary, and, though a Protestant 



OF THE REFORMATION. 299 

and partisan, not an unfair historian, La Planche, that 
in 1559, soon after the death of Henri II, the Ca- 
tholic party in Paris made use of means of this kind 
to justify their violence. Two Protestant tradesmen 
had each of them an apprentice whom they were in 
the habit of taking to their assemblies, but who having 
afterwards turned out disobedient, and run away to 
escape the punishment of their faults, were taken in 
hands by the priests, and not only made to confess 
the houses where the assemblies of Protestants were 
held, and the names of those who attended, but to 
promise to say whatever the priests put into their 
mouths. The houses were accordingly attacked, 
broken open, and plundered by the officers and rabble, 
and the families accused were all seized and committed 
to prison, while the mob carried on the work of de- 
vastation in their dwellings. When the aifair was laid 
before the magistrates, the two run-away apprentices 
were brought forward to declare upon their oaths that 
they had been present at great meetings of the " Lu- 
therans" with their masters, and that on one occasion, 
on the Thursday before Easter, about midnight, after 
they had preached, they made their Sabbath, eat a 
pig, instead of paschal lamb, and then, having put out 
the lights, " chacun prit sa chacune" &c, and gave 
other details of a similar character. Of course, no 
one was allowed to come forward on the contrary 
side, the evidence was collected, the persons imme- 
diately accused died in prison, and the rabble, as we 
are told, found rich plunder in their houses, which 
they were allowed to retain, to encourage and incite 
them to be " good Christians," and to hate heretics. 

Printing was at this period not a mere mercenary 
trade ; for many of the earlier printers were not only 



300 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

men of deep learning and high respectability, but 
they were staunch and enlightened advocates of reli- 
gious and civil liberty, at a period when such things 
were but ill understood. The most remarkable family 
whose names figure in the history of this art, was, 
without doubt, that of the Etiennes, or as they are 
usually called by English writers, the Stephens, which 
alone by its learning and high qualities would cover 
the profession with glory. The first Robert Etienne, 
the author of the " Thesaurus Linguae Latinse," was 
banished from France for the boldness of his opinions. 
One branch of his family settled as printers at Geneva. 
His brother Henri, to whom we owe the " Thesaurus 
Linguae Grascas," walked in the same path, and it is 
to him we owe the most remarkable, and perhaps the 
most influential, satire against the Romish Church 
which appeared during the sixteenth century, the 
(i Apologie pour Herodote," which certainly merits, 
as much as any of the publications at the head of our 
article, a reprint, both as a historical monument be- 
longing to the literature of France, and as a fine 
specimen of pure French composition. 

The origin of this book was somewhat similar to 
the traditional account of that of the Gargantua of 
Rabelais. Henri Etienne had published at a great 
expense an edition of Herodotus in Greek and Latin, 
which was violently decried by his enemies of the 
Romish Church as a book full of incredible stories 
and fit only to put its readers asleep. Etienne un- 
dertook to write the apology of his author, and at 
the same time to avenge himself upon his detractors. 
He observes that all old historians are full of extra- 
ordinary and sometimes incredible narratives, but that 
it would be a tyrannical kind of criticism to oblige 



OF THE REFORMATION. 301 

them to tell nothing but what we can easily believe. 
He then proceeds to show that the history of modern 
times furnished matter equally, if not more, extra- 
ordinary and incredible (if it were not known to be 
too true), than any former age. Hence the book 
was originally entitled, " Traite de la Conformite des 
Merveilles Anciennes avec les Modernes, ou Intro- 
duction d'une Apologie pour Herodote." It was 
published in 1565. 

This book opens with a somewhat serious disserta- 
tion on the condition of the Golden Age, and on the 
sense in which that title ought to be taken, which 
leads to the comparison of the perversity of the 
various ages of the world. Some, the author says, 
raise too high the moral virtues of antiquity, whilst 
others debase the ancients with equal injustice. The 
author then goes on to dwell upon the extreme 
viciousness of the middle ages — the period when the 
popish church was paramount, — which he illustrates 
and proves by a multiplicity of extracts from the old 
popular Romish preachers of France and Italy, 
Olivier Maillard, Michel Menot, and Michel de 
Bareleta. He deduces from the authority of writers 
like these, that the ages of Romanism had presented 
one general scene of vice, in which all classes had 
participated, ecclesiastics as well as laics, — that the 
world had been sunk in greater depravity than in the 
worst period of paganism. He next illustrates, by 
innumerable anecdotes and facts, the perversity of 
the age in which he lived, which he thought was 
becoming worse rather than better, and this part of 
his subject occupies the larger part of his book. 
Many of the anecdotes here given were the popular 
stories and jokes of the day, and were certainly novels 



302 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

rather than true history; but we know that such 
compositions convey to us an exact picture of the 
character of the age in which they were composed, 
although they are not individual facts. Neverthe- 
less, there is a full sufficiency of authentic facts in 
the book to bear out the author's deductions. 

Etienne proceeds, then, to show that the extreme 
perversity of the present age was sufficient to justify 
us in putting faith^in the accounts given by Hero- 
dotus, or other ancient authors, of any degree of 
extraordinary depravity in former times. Every 
class of society, the church and the laity, were 
equally contaminated, and, instead of suppressing 
wickedness, people in authority seemed only to aim 
at giving impunity to vice. Obscene and licentious 
songs, and everything calculated to corrupt the hear- 
ing and the sight, were repeated under the very nose 
of the ecclesiastics, without reproof — nay, even with 
approbation ; but if you should happen to be heard 
with a hymn or a psalm in your mouth, you are 
threatened with the faggot, or with the " chambre 
ardente." The kingdom was filled with atheism and 
impiety; which had been fostered in the scoffing 
school of Rabelais and Bonaventure des Periers, 
whom Henri Etienne mentions by name, He then 
describes the state of wretchedness to which the world 
was reduced by the rapacity of bandits, by the whole- 
sale butcheries of the religious wars, by the dishonesty 
and imposture of merchants, by the injustice of 
magistrates, by the oppressions of the great, by the 
luxury and avarice of the clergy, who appeared now 
to have thrown aside all feeling of shame. In fact, 
he tells us that the clergy of his time appeared to 
have done " like women who, as long as their wan- 



OF THE REFORMATION. 303 

derings from the path of virtue are not discovered, 
do all they can to keep up a little outside appear- 
ance of modesty, and are even accessible to some 
remains of shame ; but when they see that their pro- 
fligacy is made public, and, as the proverb has it, 
6 les petit enfans en vont a la moutarde,' then they 
do with open doors what they did before secretly ; 
and, in despite of those who talk of it, are three times 
more profligate than before. So, say I, have mes- 
sieurs the churchmen done (at least the greater part 
of them), when they saw there was no longer means 
of covering their simonies and their various traffics, 
their licentiousness and all sorts of dissoluteness." 

Their shamelessness had, indeed, become by this 
time proverbial ; and Etienne cites, somewhat wag- 
gishly, the Latin epigram of Buchanan on the eccle- 
siastic who had been accused of Lutheranism, but 
who had been readily cleared and acquitted by his 
" episcopal" manners : — 

" Esse Lutheranum rumor te, Gaurice, clamat : 

Sed tuus antistes te tamen esse negat. 
Tam scortaris, ait, quam si vel episcopus esses ; 

Et potas dubiam pervigil usque diem ; 
Nee memor es Christi, nisi quum jurare libebit, 

ISTec scis Scripturte vel breve iota sacra; 
Nempe per hasc suevit nunquam fallentia signa 

Ille vigil sanas noscere pastor oves." 

" Listen," he says, "to the description of the vir- 
tuous qualities of true monks, as made by another 
prelate : — 

" ' Pour nombrer les vertus d'un moine, 

II faut qu'il soit ord et gourmand, 

Paresseux, paillard, mal-idoine, 

Eol, lourd, y vrogne, et peu savant : 

Qu'il se creve a table en buvant 

Et en mangeant comme un pourceau. 

Pourvu qu'il sache un peu de chant, 

C'est assez, il est bon et beau.'" 



304 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

Several successive chapters are filled with anecdotes 
of the vicious lives of the popish clergy of the six- 
teenth century, and the second part of the book is 
entirely devoted to the exposure of their ignorance, 
their bigotry and superstition, and their dishonesty 
in falsifying and adding to the text of the Holy 
Scriptures. Their sermons, he says, were less cal- 
culated to edify their audience, than to promote 
laughter. The ordinary mass-priests only read their 
service by rote, and were unable to translate even a 
few words of the language in which it was written. 
A number of stories of their ignorance in this respect 
are here brought together, such as that of the priest 
who carried a message to his bishop, who was at 
table, and when the latter asked him " Es tu dignus ?" 
imagined that he meant " As-tu dine ?" and answered 
immediately, " Nenni, monseigneur, mais je dinerai 
bien avec vos gens." If things had been so bad as 
here described, the question naturally presented itself, 
how happened it that they had been allowed to go on 
so long without reform ? This question is answered 
by a detailed account of the methods used by the 
Romish Church to keep the body of the people in 
darkness and ignorance, and to repress every attempt 
at inquiry. In fine, Henri Etienne predicts that 
posterity will be astonished not only at the long con- 
tinuance of all this folly and wickedness, but that so 
many people should have been sacrificed for the mere 
attempt to render their fellow-creatures wiser and 
better. The writer of a book like this was, as might 
be expected, exposed to a multitude of persecutions. 

The sanguinary religious wars, now in their fury, 
appear for a moment to have stifled the voice of the 
press, until this gloomy period ended partially in the 



OF THE REFORMATION. 305 

horrors of the St. Barthelemi. Another monarch of 
the house of Valoissank into the tomb, and a successor 
of the same line, Henri III, was rapidly passing 
through his brief career, but the house of Guise still 
pursued its ambitious course. The religious parties 
were becoming daily more political — the watchwords 
of the contending factions were now more frequently 
Lorraine and Yalois, than Rome and Geneva; 
although still the fate of the Reformation in France 
was intimately woven w T ith that of Henri of Navarre, 
who continued to stand forth as the leader of the 
Huguenots. The greater part of the songs and popular 
libels published during the reign of Henri III, which 
have reached our time, were composed in favour of 
the duke of Guise. It was during this period that 
the famous "Ligue" came into existence, the object 
of which was not only to destroy the Protestant 
cause, but to snatch the crown from the house of 
Yalois ; and it even aimed undisguisedly at that of 
Elizabeth of England. The victory gained by the 
duke of Guise over the Reisters and the Huguenot 
party, at Auneau, in the November of 1587, was, to 
use the expression of a contemporary, " la cantique 
de la Ligue ; " it raised to the highest pitch the hopes 
of the Spanish and ultra-papist party, and it was the 
excess of their exultations which first opened the eyes 
of the weak monarch on the throne to their real in- 
tentions. The numerous songs on this event show 
us more plainly than any other documents the spirit 
which actuated the Guisard faction. One of the first 
that offers itself to us, describes the execration in which 
the victors held the Huguenots, in the following 
words : — 



306 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

" Huguenots pleins de rage, 
Vous estes bien faschez, 
Plus n'avez de courage ; 
Vos Reistres sont cassez. 
lis voudroient d' assurance 
Estre hors de France, 
Ou au pays lointain ; 
Ou bien a la Rochelle, 
Avec les infidelles 
Disciples de Calvin." 

In another, entitled the " Testament of the Reis- 
tres," we are told that they had left at La Rochelle 
a gallows and ladder, to hang all who would preach 
to the Calvinists : — 

" lis ont laisse a La Rochelle 
Une potance et une echelle 
Pour les pendre et estrangler, 
Ann qu'il ne puisse prescher 
La loy des Calvinistes." 

And a whip at Geneva to flog Beza and the other 
preachers : — 

" lis ont laisse dedans Geneve 
Un fouet pour bien estriller Beze 
Et tous les autres predicans." 

In a third, after exulting over the defeat of the 
heretics : — 

" Tremblez, tremblez, heretiques, maintenant, 
Car vous n'avez plus le temps, 
Vos ministres sont brouys, — " 

the poet-partisan goes on to wish that the " noble 
duke " with his valiant soldiers were in England, to 
"reform the laws of Luther and Calvin," and fill 
their pockets with " nobles and angels." 



OF THE REFOEMATION. 307 

" Si on estoit passe au pays Anglois, 

On reformeroit les loix 

De Luther et de Calvin. 
* * * * 

Les soldats Francois voudroient bien a ceste fois 

Voir le pays d'Angleterre ; 
lis se chargeroient de nobles et d'angelots 

Pour bouter a leurs thresors." 

In another violent Guisard song, composed a little 
later, Queen Elizabeth is treated with the title of 
Jezebel : — 

" Lorsque les Catholiques Frangois 
Seront par le roy de Navarre 
Traictez comme sont les Anglois 
Par la Jezabel d'Angleterre." 

The licence of the press had been increasing during 
the reign of Henri III, and on the murder of the 
duke of Guise and his brother the cardinal of Lor- 
raine by his order, and the subsequent murder of the 
king by the agency of the Ligue, the fury of the 
popular writers knew no bounds. Pamphlets, and 
songs, and caricatures poured forth daily, filled with 
insult and reproach, and expressed in the most violent 
language which could be imagined, by the furious 
bigotry of the catholic preachers on the one hand, 
and by the irritated loyalty of the other. Some of 
the most conspicuous among the satirical libels pub- 
lished by the Ligue at this time, are " La Vie et 
Faits notables de Henri de Valois," " Les Sorcelleries 
de Henri de Valois," and "Le Martyre des deux 
Freres." The first of these pieces is said to have 
been composed by Jean Boucher, cure of St. Benoit 
in Paris, whose violent sermons had so much influence 
on the Liguers. It was printed in Paris towards 



308 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

the end of the year 1588, and was intended by its 
virulence against the king, who is proclaimed as a 
hypocrite and apostate, to excite the people to re- 
bellion. The others are written, if possible, in a still 
more virulent spirit, were also printed in Paris, and 
their object was evidently to prepare the way for the 
dethronement of the king, who, in the last, is de- 
scribed as a " Turk by the head, a German by the 
body, a harpy by the hands, an Englishman by the 
garter, a Pole by the feet, and a devil in soul ! " A 
host of popular songs conveyed the same sentiments 
and aimed at the same end. The king was compared 
to the parricide Nero : — 

" Je ne peux mieux acomparer ta vie 
Qua celle-la de ce cruel aSTeron. 
Seniblable a toi, il estoit plein d'envie, 
De cruaute, rancune, et trahison." 

The city of Blois, where the king had taken up 
his residence, when he made his escape from the 
hands of the Liguers, is cursed for harbouring him : — 

" Malheur sur toi, ville de Blois, 
Qui enclos ce trahistre Vallois, 
Qui fut vray fils d'une chimere ! 
Mais nialheur, dis-je, non sur toy, 
Mais advienne a ce tyran roy, 
Qui fait dans ton corps son repaire." 

For the title of " tres-chretien " had in this instance 
been borne by a worthless dog : — 

" Ce plus que trop enrage chien 
Portoit tiltre de tres-chretien." 

There is something fiendish in the exultation of the 
Liguers on the death of the king in 1589, murdered 
by the knife of the Jacobin monk, Jacques Clement, 



OF THE REFORMATION. 309 

who suffered the penalty he merited, but who was 
held up as a saint and martyr by his own party. A 
song entitled " The Cleverness of the Jacobin," 
begins with the following description of the exploit, in 
a style worthy of the sansculottes of the later French 
Re volution: — 

" H sortit de Paris 

Un homme illustre et sainct, 
De la religion 

Des freres Jacobins. 
Qui portait une lettre 

A Henry le vaurien ; 
II tira de sa manche 

Un couteau bien a poinct, 
Dont il frappa Henry 

Au-dessoubz du pourpoint, 
Droit dans le petit ventre, 

Dedans son gras boudin." 

And ends with a prayer that the murderer might be 
received in heaven for his deed: — 

" Nous prions Dieu pour Tame 
De l'heureux Jacobin, 
Qu'il receive son ame 
En son trosne divin ! " 

In fact, it was God hinself, according to another of 
these songs, who instigated this "good priest and 
monk, who had always possessed a good soul," to the 
fearful deed : — 

" Mais Dieu . . mouvant le cceur devotieux 
De Jacques Clement de Sorbonne, 
Bon prestre et bon religieux, 
Qui toujours a eu Tame bonne, 

" A tuer ce tyran niaudit, 

Ce qu'il a fait de gal ant homme, 
Voyant qu'il estoit interdit 
Par notre saint pere de Rome. 



310 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

" Avec un couteau bien petit 
II a tue ce roy inique, 
Ce tyran meschant et maudit, 
Yray ennerny du catholique." 

According to a third of these songs, which recom- 
mends a temple to be erected to the " sainct reli- 
gieux,'' who had been "guided by the Holy Spirit" 
to commit this execrable murder, the Bearnais (Henri 
IV.) was destined to the same fate : — 



" L'on luy crevera la pance, 
Soit aujourd'huy ou demain.' 



In reading productions like these, we are led involun- 
tarily to exclaim with the poet of old, " Tan turn 
relligio potuit !" — could deeds like these ever be made 
to pass for acts of holiness ? The songs of the other 
party began now, however, to be more powerful than 
those of the Liguers, and they told a different story 
of the Jacobin " martyr :" — 

" Les Ligeurs n'ont point de foy, 
lis ont fait tuer leur roy, 
Par un traistre Jacobin 
Dont ils font un martyre." 

Jacques Clement, according to the pamphlets of the 
royalists, was a profligate bigot, who had been urged 
on by the Liguers, and especially by the duchess of 
Montpensier, the sister of the duke of Guise, to the 
murder of his sovereign — they even openly accused 
the beautiful duchess of having abandoned her person 
to the monk on the condition of his taking an oath to 
perpetrate this deed. A multitude of violently satirical 
publications were now sent forth by the adherents of 
the king of Navarre, whom, on the murder of the 



OF THE REFORMATION. 311 

king, they had immediately proclaimed as Henri IY. 
A glance through the journal of Pierre L'Estoille 
will show best how rapidly these tracts succeeded 
each other—- fourmillerent is the word used by this 
writer. The Lio-uers were entire masters of the 
presses of Paris, Lyons, Rouen, and other large 
towns, and had in their pay an inconceivable multi- 
tude of scurrilous and violent writers and preachers, 
constantly occupied in exciting the passions of the 
multitude. On the side of the royalists were a few 
men, of surpassing talents, who did their best to make 
head against the formidable inundation of pamphlets 
with books written in a strain of satire and pleasantry 
of a much higher order, but which aimed more at the 
good sense and reason than at the passions of their 
readers. One of the most bitter of these tracts is 
"Le Masque de la Ligue decouvert," printed at 
Tours in 1590, in which the Ligue is branded as a 
more hideous monster than any of those which had 
been subdued by the force of Hercules — as a hor- 
rible Megsera — as a cursed pernicious sorceress ! Ces 
frocs, ces cuculles, ces monstres, ces horreurs infernales, 
ces furies, are the terms which this writer applies to 
the bigoted adherents of the party of Spain and the 
pope. Still the literary advantage remained on the 
other side, until, at the end of the year 1593, a small 
party of royalist writers joined in composing the 
famous " Satyre Menippee," a chef-d'oeuvre of satire, 
the appearance of which was almost a second Ivry 
for Henri IY. With this book the literary supe- 
riority changed sides ; and, from the moment of its 
publication, writer after writer took up the pen to 
scatter ridicule and sarcasm on the sainte union. So 
great was the success of this satire, that within four 



312 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

weeks of its first appearance as many large editions 
had been bought up. 

The subject of the <( Satyre Menippee" was the 
meeting of the States, called together by the duke 
of Mayenne, on the 10th of February, 1593, for the 
purpose of electing a new king, in opposition to 
Henri IV, but which, as is well known, was ren- 
dered abortive by the difference of opinion which 
arose within the bosom of the assembly. The history 
of this remarkable monument of the literature of the 
sixteenth century is somewhat obscure, although the 
names of the principal writers have been preserved — 
a small society of scholars who had been accustomed 
to meet together in Paris, until scattered abroad by 
the violence of the Ligue, and one of whom was the 
celebrated Pithou. Each in his turn composes a 
discourse, in which the excesses and ambition of the 
Liguers are made the object of a constant and well- 
sustained fire of buffooneries, jests, biting parodies, 
pleasantries of every description, sparkling epigrams, 
sarcasms, and puns, and which is placed in the mouth 
of one of the speakers in this memorable assembly. 
It is prefaced by a treatise on the virtues of the 
Catholicon, or grand nostrum for all political diseases. 
While preparations are making for the assembly of 
the estates, two quack doctors, one a Spaniard, the 
other a native of Lorraine (the Cardinals of Plaisance 
and Peleve), make their appearance at the Louvre, 
and vaunt the virtues of their drug, the Mguiero 
dHnfiemo, and the wonderful effects it had worked in 
the hands of the Spaniard, a few of which may serve 
for a sample of the whole. " Let a king who never 
leaves his cabin amuse himself with refining this drug 
in his Escurial, let him write a word in Flanders to 



OF THE REFORMATION. 313 

father Ignatius, sealed with the Catholicon, he will 
find him a man who (salva conscientia) will assassi- 
nate his enemy whom he has not been able to van- 
quish in arms during twenty years." This, of course, 
is an allusion to the murder of the prince of Orange. 
" Go and serve as a spy in the camp, in the trenches, 
at the cannon, in the king's chamber, and in his 
councils, yea, though men know you for such ; yet 
if you have taken in the morning but one grain of 
higuiero, whoever shall tax, reprove, or accuse you 
of it, shall be esteemed a Huguenot, or a favourer of 
heretics." — " Have no religion, mock in sport, and 
as much as you will, the priests and sacraments of 
the Church, and all law, both of God and man ; eat 
flesh in Lent in despite of the Church ; you need no 
other absolution nor better pardon than half a dram 
of this Catholicon." — " Would you very quickly 
become a cardinal ? rub one of the horns of your cap 
with higuiero, it will become red, and you shall be 
made a cardinal, though you were the most incestuous 
and ambitious primate in the world" This is an 
allusion to Pierre d'Espinac, archbishop of Lyons. 

The description of the meeting of the States opens 
with a caricatured procession of the personages con- 
cerned in it, and an account of the tapestries supposed 
to be hung round the hall in which they meet, repre- 
senting the various crimes and defeats of the Ligue. 
Then the order of the seats is enumerated, and the 
duke of Mayenne opens the business with a bitterly 
satirical speech, the author of which is not known. 
The chief of the Liguers is made to give a detailed 
enumeration of the various acts of violence and in- 
justice committed in the name of the sainte union, 
and sums up his services to the country by asserting, 

II. P 



314 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

that " through our good diligence we have brought to 
pass, that this kingdom, which was nothing else but 
a garden of all pleasure and abundance, is now become 
a great and wide universal cemetery, full of many 
fair painted crosses, biers, gallowses, and gibbets." 
Addresses of a similar kind, by different writers, are 
put in the mouths of the other speakers of the assem- 
bly, until we arrive at monsieur d'Aubray, who 
represented the tiers-etat, and whose discourse, the 
work of Pierre Pithou, is a model of indignant and 
persuasive eloquence, striking a death-bloAV at the 
cause which had been undermined and disarmed by 
the raillery of the preceding portion of the work. 
The confusion attendant upon this discourse breaks 
up the assembly, and the whole ends with a descrip- 
tion of satirical pictures and mottoes which the re- 
porter beholds on the staircase of the Louvre, and 
with a collection of no less satirical verses, said to 
have been composed by Passerat and Nicholas Rapin. 
After the first editions of the " Satyre Menippee," 
several supplements were added to it, consisting of a 
discourse by the printer on the meaning of the term 
higuiero cCinjierno ; of the news from the regions of 
the moon (a clever imitation of Lucian and Kabe- 
lais) ; and of the " Histoire des Singeries de la Ligue," 
all of which will be found in the new edition indicated 
at the head of the present article. 

With the fall of the Ligue, the battle of the Re- 
formation in France may be considered to have 
ended, and although their leader and many of their 
friends had, for political reasons, embraced the catholic 
faith, the Huguenots had secured for a while the 
privilege of enjoying their opinions. They still ex- 
isted as a political party, and as such were drawn 



Or THE REFORMATION. 315 

into many of the troubles of the earlier part of the 
seventeenth century ; but the great fight for religious 
freedom was then carried on in Germany. One of 
the latest Protestant satires — directed against the 
conversions which followed the accession of Henri 
IV. to the throne — was the " Confession du sieur de 
Sancy," composed during the latter years of the 
sixteenth century, and attributed,with apparently good 
reason, to Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, a zealous 
and active Protestant, known by a history of his own 
time, and by another satirical work, " The Adven- 
tures of the baron de Feneste." Nicolas de Harlay, 
seigneur de Sancy, an intriguing person, who pro- 
bably had no respect for religion at all, was remark- 
able for the number of times which he had changed 
from one religion to the other, previous to his final 
conversion to the catholic faith in 1597, in imitation 
of the king, although he attributed this conversion to 
the convincing arguments and solid instruction of the 
bishop of Evreux, who was congratulated upon his 
success by pope Clement VIII. It is to this bishop 
— who had boasted of the dexterity with which he 
could argue alternately in favour of religion or 
atheism — that the pretended confession is dedicated. 
This work, divided into two books, is a very severe 
and very clever satire on the Romish Church, and is 
full of minute allusions to the historical events of the 
times, which renders it difficult to give an abstract of 
it. In the first book the writer ridicules the pre- 
tended authority of the pope, who, he says, has the 
power facer e infecta facta ; the authority of tradition ; 
the power of the saints; purgatory; justification by 
works (a chapter full of scandalous anecdotes) ; mira- 
cles and pilgrimages (a chapter worthy of Henri 



316 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

Etienne) ; the worship of relics ; religious vows ; the 
methods of conversion ; and transubstantiation. Of 
traditions, Sancy says, " We anger the Huguenots 
very much, when we show them that the authority of 
the church and tradition teach us to acknowledge the 
Scriptures, although the canonical Scriptures do not 
teach us to acknowledge the authority of the Church 
of Rome or of tradition. In fact, we ought to hold 
by the books of the church, and not by the canonical 
books, otherwise the heretics would diffame our 
affairs with their passages from the bible. But to cut 
the matter more short, I should be of opinion, not to 
reckon for tradition, the ancient doctors of the first 
six centuries ; during which the church was not yet 
ennobled ; those splendid temples were not built; the 
popes of Rome held their thrones in caverns ; and, to 
be brief, the popes might pass for ministers of the 
first troubles, and the church smelt of the Huguenot, 
or rather of the faggot." Speaking of miracles, he 
says, " The late cardinal, of good memory par excel- 
lence, that is to say, of Lorraine, having heard that 
the mareschal de Fervaques, of good memory also, 
had discovered a prostitute, whom the priest of 
Belovet, otherwise called the Holy Man, was teach- 
ing to counterfeit a demoniac, in order to have a 
notable miracle for the next Pentecost; that great 
prelate exclaimed against the impiety of the said 
Fervaques, saying, that, although the miracles may be 
false, they were, nevertheless, useful ad pias fraudes, 
pious frauds ; and in fact, his miracle had a wonderful 
effect, for in a place which was not before inhabited, 
there were built in three years eighty houses and 
fifty inns, which were not enough to lodge all the 
pilgrims who crowded from different quarters, and 
even great lords from foreign parts; and if there 



OF THE REFORMATION. 317 

were no other miracle than the building of houses, 
and the extent and duration of an opinion converted 
into belief without foundation, there is not a schis- 
matic but must confess that that is wonderful, and it 
is what makes the heretics mad, when they see that 
the people are burning with good intentions." After 
a most edifying dissertation on the virtues of relics, 
Sancy says, " As for me, if I don't make so much of 
relics, and if I only pretend to adore them, hold me 
excused ; for going one evening to Bosny, two 
leagues from Orleans, which is the seat of messieurs 
of St. Lazarus, I was all astonished to hear, as I was 
getting up in the morning, a quantity of bells ringing 
round the house, and to see the banner and the cross, 
and a large body of the canons of St. Aignan of 
Orleans enter, yea, as many as could enter into a 
little gallery leading to the privies. The fact was, 
that a wench of the chevalier Salviata, then grand 
prior of the order, had fished up some coffers which 
had been thrown in time of war into the privy. In 
one of the coffers she found a solitary box, on which 
was written R. D. Coti. The commander, being in- 
formed of this, hastened to the spot with his secretary, 
named Yalderie, who took the R with the point 
for the father of St. Catherine. Thereupon, it 
was strictly forbidden to touch it, and his master 
and he went to fetch the bishop of Orleans ; the doc- 
tors in theology, and among others Picard, called 
together in consultation, came to the resolution that 
this box ought to be opened by the sacred hands of 
the bishop, in the presence of the neighbouring pro- 
cessions. There they were just arrived in the 
morning, and after a mass of the Holy Spirit, they 
wash the bishop's fingers with holy water, he ad- 
vances three steps on his knees towards the coffer, 



318 ON THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE 

opens the box — and it turns out to be a box of good 
Cotignac of Orleans, and thus, since prophecies are 
only known by their fulfilment, it turned out that the 
R. signified Reste, and D. Coti was for de Cotignac" 
In a chapter on martyrs in the second book, which 
treats other subjects in a similar style with the first, 
Sancy observes, " Of all the books which are calcu- 
lated to make a heretic, or at least which a good 
catholic ought to avoid, I know no one so dangerous, 
after the Bible, as that great book of martyrs. For 
it is a great case, to see five, six, or seven thousand 
dead, who have all the marks of a true martyrdom, 
namely, probity of life, the purity of the cause of 
religion, not mixed with less holy feelings, and above 
all with the choice of life and death in their power up 
to the last moment. By this we have lost many who 
have seen the preachers of former times having for a 
pulpit the scaffold, or the ladder, or the stake." It 
will be easily seen that the confession of Sancy, is a 
burlesque defence of the doctrines and practice of the 
Romish Church, put into the mouth of an insincere 
convert, and addressed to a would-be universal con- 
verter. It appears to have been written during the 
closing years of the sixteenth century, and was 
published at the beginning of the seventeenth. 

In closing this rapid sketch of the history of satiri- 
cal literature in France during the sixteenth century, 
I will say but a few words only on the too celebrated 
(i Moyen de Parvenir," the reputed work of Beroalde 
de Verville, The wit of Rabelais still retained its 
influence, and we find his style not unfrequently 
imitated even by the Protestant satirists. The ex- 
cesses of religious persecution which had character- 
ized the latter half of the century, cast a dark shade 
over the style of the controversialists ; but the gay 



OF THE REFORMATION. 319 

licentiousness of the wits of the age of Francis I, 
again held up its head under Henry IV, and gave a 
character to the manners of the seventeenth century, 
which, particularly in the latter half of the century, 
was felt in England as much as in France. One of 
the most conspicuous and remarkable of the early 
writers of this school was Beroalde de Verville, 
who, born about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
had been educated as a Huguenot and a mathe- 
matician, was subsequently converted to Romanism, 
became an ecclesiastic, and was received a canon of 
the chapter of St. Gatien, at Tours, in 1593. In that 
quality he distinguished himself as a writer of 
romances chiefly remarkable for their dulness and 
obscenity, and he published secretly, about the 
year 1610, the " Moyen de Parvenir." This book 
describes a kind of learned symposium, at which 
all kinds of characters, ancients and moderns, war- 
riors, and men (and women) of letters, pagans, and 
catholics, and protestants, meet together in a strange 
pell-mell, and converse together in a style so licen- 
tious as to set at defiance all attempts at entering 
into any abstract of it. Its object appears to be to 
scoff at all philosophy and religion;* it contains 
sarcasms against the monks and the Romish Church, 
as well as against the Reformers ; but it is composed 
in a pure style, with so much talent and wit, that 
some have supposed that it must be the work of 
an older and abler writer, the manuscript of which 
had fallen into Beroalde's hands, and which he had 
revised and given to the world. 



FINIS. 



CHISWICK. PRESS -. — PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
TOOKS COURT, CHANCER! LANE. 



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